Most read stories

Testament/ National Poetry Month, 2013/ 25 Poems

12711271 views88 comments55 favs

Small stones/ skipped across/ still water ripple

Together in Tuscany

12701270 views33 comments33 favs

Here comes the bus. It’s going to Tuscany and is full of pronouns: he, she, me, you, it, them, us, we, and you again.

that whistle of yours

12701270 views22 comments11 fav

I heard a story once that said we are all entitled to seven good years. No, wait, that is not exactly what it said. Rather, it was more plaintive and inquiring. The feeling that song gave was more one of asking the question: Wasn’t I supposed to get sev

Nostril

12701270 views11 comment00 favs

The damaged lining of this awkward appellation is just bewitching, begging of the light test prod — OW! and then stern mastery: Introducing the cruelly hooked thumb with ragged nail, plunging up, ripping into and down…

Each Planned to Kill the Other

12701270 views33 comments00 favs

What was heinous about it was how easy I assumed it would be. That was truly heinous, and it was a mistake in the end to think of it that way. But I’ve learned from what’s heinous. I’ve bought a plastic cylinder filled with nylon zip ties. They’re great f

Politicouscous II

12701270 views1111 comments55 favs

In which era was it not a scary world?/ Last century, the perils were both red and yellow/ after Jerry was undone. Now, they’re brown/ and cross, without respect, the Rio Grande

Ask the Language Monitor

12701270 views44 comments11 fav

A woman I work with is always going on about her daughter is an expert water-skier and has a collection of antique thimbles and makes prize-winning congo bars.

My Girlfriend The Night (Vigil, Rain, and the Round Beet Sun)

12701270 views11 comment00 favs

The sun was a red beet and it waited low in the sky but I didn't know for what reason. You could look right at it and forget for an instant about tenement buildings and hydro lines, or the dirty city in general. I tied my shoes and got some water…

Goliath

12701270 views00 comments00 favs

He glances at the other patrons of the café. He has the mix of middle management goliath and shy, fat kid at a school swimming pool. Neither fit comfortably but it's as bespoke as his suit, protective as fat. The arm rests on the table curling protectivel

A Haiku In Spirit But Not In Form On the Fine Art of Sumo

12701270 views33 comments11 fav

Two titans move opposite one another

The House on El Nino Diablo Court

12701270 views00 comments11 fav

On a cold, dark night near to All Hallows' Eve in October of 1930, I was summoned by Constable John Wakefield to the house of Vernalier Driscoll. The constable was wild-eyed and very nervous, his hair appeared to be standing on end.

All About You

12701270 views77 comments33 favs

Sometimes you want to strike out at me. What is stopping you? There is no stopping you. You know I will not retaliate. Gone is all that I will be to you then.

Miss Miriam

12701270 views22 comments00 favs

Miriam smiled as I entered through the old, creaky metal front door of her home. She sat still, face marked of deep wrinkles, tense with the pain only another cancer patient would understand. In that soft, sweet, melodic voice, she greeted me. '"Hello Ms. Monica, I've been…

taken

12701270 views55 comments55 favs

today somewhere by water this photograph of a woman

from Tsalmaveth

12701270 views11 comment11 fav

Anastomose my veins to / yours so we may / share // a dream pooled between us

I Take Out The Garbage

12691269 views1515 comments99 favs

I Take Out The Garbage

Afton Mountain

12691269 views1212 comments88 favs

fog settles over the mountain laying a ghostly blue shroud

circles, the round

12691269 views1111 comments88 favs

and skirts, lovely batiks, swirl around your ankles

The Flame Child

12691269 views11 comment00 favs

Lupe drove. She didn't know where she was going, but still she drove. The Mustang whined because she did not shift gears. The street was wet from a night rain and if…

Chicken Human

12691269 views77 comments33 favs

I was in a Chinese restaurant trying to read the menu when I realized Hunan was only 1 letter off of Human I thought it read Chicken Human This was just in a dream, so I ordered it It was delicious, but kind of salty Then someone at ano

Coconut Milk

12691269 views00 comments00 favs

"The baby's head..it was so big. There were complications...I saw it all. They tried to get me out of the room but I saw it all. He split her apart like a coconut Norm! She was gone like that."

sirens

12691269 views22 comments11 fav

I know what that coast was like, where you went. A coarse country filled with malodorous women that sang from the shores. Groups of nine stripped to the waist. Some with braids hanging down their back. Garden beauties. Visual porticos, with their floral

Error Message

12691269 views00 comments00 favs

Would you take a job living in a computer? What if you had to?

Crash Car Star

12681268 views00 comments00 favs

here we go.

When the Snow Geese Fly

12681268 views33 comments33 favs

When the snow geese fly to the warming marshes,when the ice melts on the pond in the wood,when the sweet breath of fresh-mown haylofts over us and settles on the fields,I will remember you have been a blessing,a quiet steady forceWe will sit at the kitchen table and…

Nowhere Is Everywhere

12681268 views66 comments11 fav

I got fired once because I couldn't make change. I knew this going in. Friends and family all pushed me to take a job behind the counter at a health food store. I kept insisting I couldn't make change. Seriously. My mind goes blank. If someone hands me a five dollar…

Even if I was a Fool

12681268 views77 comments77 favs

I enjoy the walk through these crowded woods. It's good to be back among deeply seated young and old trees again. That familiar smell, you want to always savor it so very much, to not deny any of it. It smells like a blue sky, the…

Five Million Yen: Chapter 68

12681268 views22 comments11 fav

Ben’s tactic for diverting Monique’s thoughts from the encounter with Zoë and the horrific episode in his dressing room was to dance, dance, dance.

Sunday Evening, 4:23AM

12681268 views22 comments11 fav

The rhythm of my breathing is a litany of regret.

Weeknights, Idling, Candlelight

12681268 views22 comments00 favs

I find that I am keeping silent more often. I don't like repeating myself.