Most read stories

The Train Rolls On

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From my office window, I watch the trains roll in and out of the city. Sometimes I catch a glimpse of passengers staring out windows as the train slows, the ones who have another destination. I've been on those trains before, ones that took me far away from all that…

Untitled

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our cogs winding and whirring

The Nude Pianist: A Novel: Chapter 20

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Elaine Aster paced her office trailing a cloud of smoke of cigarette smoke.

Confidence

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one day the words will form an order, one day the words will make a rhyme, one day the words will make a meaning

Cotter Pin Blues

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"I like to see your juicy cheeks wiggle."

Turning Heads

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Crows cawed, kvetched.

Mean

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I was in a bar waiting for a friend when two ugly women sat next beside me. When our eyes met, they gave me a smile. I smiled back out of courtesy. I wasn't in the mood to have a conversation not because they're unattractive, but my friend was horribly…

Things an Old Person Would Say

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Obituaries aren’t as much fun as they used to be.

fields of gold

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The son stood on the porch with his grip packed. "I'm off to mine me a fortune a gold, Daddy." "Boy, there's a fortune in gold right here," said the father, indicating the ripe wheat, glowing in early morning sun. The kid slumped. "Pop, you turn over a rock there,…

Chicago

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For some reason in my daydream he would use the formal “ma'am” to approach me, despite the fact that we were in a swarm of sweaty grunting men in the basement that smelled like feral animal feces and jock straps.

Five Acts

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The television was playing reruns of Mr. Ed, but it was hard to hear because of the flock of birds in the palm tree. I’d sometimes imagined the birds coming through the window, a swarming of pink cotton mouths, mawing everything in sight.

Anniversary

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We continue,/Held beyond all surface Liking it still/And each other/Often surprised:/Like finding garden flowers/No one planted/In summer bloom

Music

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Five micros

Flower Power

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"Poets are damned but they are not blind, they see with the eyes of the angels."--William Carlos WilliamsThere is something beautiful I want to say to you that doesn't seem to make much more sense in a box of clever words like this one. It feels closer to…

Fifteen

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Lucy entered the open door next; she had been inside the cat litter house before: Brother Fran didn’t bother to cover turds he’d laid. He spoke of the outdoors: lizards he’d separated from their heads, world of work.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Photosynthesis

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Minimalist/realist short-story writer Raymond Carver was fired from his job as an editor of science textbooks because of his inappropriate writing style.

Letter Home

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The pen point sits motionless on the paper...

Let’s Swing

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You don’t want to tango with me, she said.

Dixon Ticonderoga - 2 5/10 medium

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gotta love a pencil

In This, Our Life

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Her captors allowed her the use of the toes of one foot. It was hard to pretend she was numb—as if playing an artic game indoors. With the ball of her foot, she primed the canvas. Her big toe acted as a fan brush, the rest were sable, flat, or pointy. She told…

I Wonder

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I wonder what it would be like to dog-paddle in the middle of the ocean. I wonder how Jean Auguste Ingres got the flesh tones for “Odalisque.” I wonder if bees have dreams.

Needle in a pocket

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Finding a soft pink blanket I prepared a place by the dirty window where he watched his world from a corner of his life.

Crimson and Clover

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The world follows me everywhere. I can’t get rid of it. I’m being stalked by a planet.

War Story : Alternate Duty

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They say that air traffic control is stressful work and I guess it is for some people. It did require a lot of concentration but that never bothered me much. I could keep the position, bearing and altitude of a couple of dozen aircraft in my head without

Diana and the White-Haired Moon Goddess

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I’ll bet You got bit by Snake Charmer Boy And your world fell out from under you

living in the flames

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After it is over, I go out into the world, to the café. The flower sellers are setting up their booth outside the glass doors. Classical guitar over the speakers. A soft rain falling. Heads bowed, reading the news. Coffee, croissants, cappuccino. This g

full moon over econolodge on I-70

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There was no hope for the writing desk. Even if it had not been for the splintered leg held together only by duct tape, there was no way Ron could have fit into the back of the station wagon with the rest of the luggage. He asked the Mexicans across the s

late winter light

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curled in

Clockwork and Sex Appeal

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And her life runs like clockwork. And the kids wouldn’t get to school without her, and the paychecks wouldn’t arrive and the taxes wouldn’t get paid. And she listens to religion and country and God telling her how to run her life, what to do and when. B

Coyote Captured Outside Lower Manhattan Café

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I heard the patron yelling, “Hey, man! That’s my cappuccino!” when the young female snatched it and got away. But the police cornered her a few blocks away, licking the last bits of foam off her wiley whiskers. That’s how they knew they had