Most read stories

The Poet

12481248 views66 comments22 favs

It dawned on herthat her imagination hadswollen beyond belief

Walking To Gibraltar, Chapter 7: In Which Pictures Were All He Could Feel (First Musical Interlude)

12481248 views00 comments00 favs

"The Impossible Dream." That time they drove to North Carolina and Ellen threw up and nobody but Dad felt like eating, so Dad stopped at McDonald's and the smell of hamburgers made Ellen throw up again. This time, on Frank.

we were not deer

12481248 views00 comments00 favs

The crescent moon lies with anyone (in case you wanted to know.) And the rain – as cheaply! I don’t think anyone knows this, when they are young. When you are young, very young, you want to be included in everything. “The young that the sea took, ki

Lineage

12481248 views11 comment11 fav

the arc of her invective presumably aimed at the little boy and girl ambling halfway down the block behind her

Lentil Soup

12471247 views00 comments00 favs

"You're my husband, for chrissake!"

Enigmas

12471247 views11 comment11 fav

Fish don't walk.

The Right to Privacy

12471247 views11 comment00 favs

Every day, I come home from work and hear you two screaming next door, breaking dishes and furniture and sometimes each other while your toddler wails. And if I can't drown it out with the TV and a beer, I stuff in the earbuds and crank up the iPod, too. That way, I…

Oh Captain, Good Captain: Part III

12471247 views00 comments00 favs

His hands are just like mine The crook of his nose The green of his glare Pearls of his mouth The soft strength of his voice Those diligent digits The brick of his build The grim complexion of father She fell for familiar A man just like me …

Box Set

12471247 views44 comments33 favs

Isn’t it funny how a mosaic of neurons in our heads receives sensations from the outer world and grows into postulates and letters?

Job Needed

12471247 views1010 comments66 favs

I have enjoyed three paid teaching days in Minnesota, since my return in 1996. All three paid days were fielded through S.A.S.E., all three at Patrick Henry. I loved it there. I hope never to become certified to teach.

"It's Just Breakfast" Fills Dating Service Niche

12471247 views00 comments00 favs

"Too many people were presenting themselves in a false light on lunch dates,” she says. “The power ties on the men, the come-you-know-what-me pumps on the women–that’s not what married life is about.”

A Question for the Gods

12471247 views00 comments00 favs

She reached out her arms and spoke to the moon, "I ran from my fears, from loving too soon." She gazed at the heavens and cried to the stars, "I could not promise him all of my heart." She wiped away her tears and laughed at the trees, "Not a soul on this earth would…

Code Book of Apathy

12471247 views00 comments00 favs

that lightheaded feeling you have right now is a good thing

Almond

12461246 views22 comments00 favs

Almonds of childhood – fending off needless tears and chocolate impulses, almonds of my teens, slivered and toasted industrially baked settling in on egg washed croissant…mashed into the kitchen sink of the catch-all bear claw, then the taste and shiv

The Fixer

12461246 views22 comments11 fav

When someone asks me what I do, I tell them that I am a fixer. I fix things. There is nothing that cannot be fixed. Will it ever be as good as new? That is subjective, but I will fix it for you.

The Library of the Realm of Dreams

12461246 views11 comment11 fav

I hold down the control-alt-delete keys simultaneously and the screen goes blank, sending Camus into a paroxysm of fear; for a guy who wrote an essay on facing down suicide, he’s kind of jumpy.

Kynik; or, Doggerel I

12461246 views00 comments00 favs

Can't you go faster Said the disciple to the master Won't you speed up the car I know that you're loaded And I've already goaded You into crashing through the star But we need To pick up more speed As we break past all the flames So we might soon demise In this…

Lost and Found

12461246 views11 comment00 favs

Adrienne found her calling in Africa feeding poor children or whatever the fuck you do when you're in the Peace Corps.

Pilot Wannabe

12461246 views44 comments44 favs

We were both looking up at the rainy sky, while the big jet barely moved through the clouds, coming in for a landing at Oakland between storms. It sort of reminded me of 911, the way they just seemed to hover above us, barely moving, like they were poss

Nola Visit

12461246 views1313 comments1212 favs

The little Lady and I drove down to New Orleans to take in the Mardi Gras festivities we’d read so much about.

More Corpses

12461246 views55 comments55 favs

(I would cite here “corpse plumbers”, but I fear being misconstrued.)

Status Update

12461246 views11 comment00 favs

I can't tell a cigarette from a cheese sandwich as I stare vacantly into the synthetic sunshine of my laptop. Jump up a few lines to add a comma to show the possession of clocks they do belong to people after all. I sip my coffee from a novelty mug, ho

Пушкин и Baudelaire, via странников

12461246 views55 comments44 favs

—but night does not reduce me to sleep / the dragging minutes keep awake / the dark that only opens its deep . . .

Bird's Eye View

12451245 views22 comments11 fav

seven birds on the wire turn in unison to the right

Peace be with you

12451245 views22 comments22 favs

Published in Calamities Presshttp://calamitiespress.com/2014/08/24/peace-be-with-you-slippy-realism-by-joao-cerqueira/ Peace be with you Jesus returned to earth by walking down the middle of…

Remaking Your Dreams Come True

12451245 views55 comments22 favs

Reincarnation. Not a bad deal, especially for cows. For the rest of us, it is like being in a witness protection program. And all without the risk of having those against whom you bore witness coming after you. Usually.

Custard and Blancmange

12451245 views11 comment11 fav

Who here of us has not yet caught Advanced to leaden fife, The answer to our waiting What, That answered, “Such is life?” I saw a jelly man go past, Who wobbled in his strife And cried, “No stiffness that won't last …

Lost

12451245 views44 comments33 favs

I don’t know where I am. It is summertime, at dusk; the dying sun and the newborn moon are low on opposite horizons.

Spring

12441244 views33 comments00 favs

We fall through two feet of clouds and dragons before we land softly on our feet in clover and crab grass.

no one answered

12441244 views44 comments11 fav

I knocked on all the windows, on all the doors. No one answered. The television was glowing. I went around behind your house and saw it through the curtains, blowing in. (I knew you were hurting.) Knocked and tried the sliding glass door, the flimsy scr