Most read stories

Sounding Well

12541254 views00 comments00 favs

There is Truth in imperfection,Symmetry in distortion.Like a sounding well,You can determine the depth of me--PlumbTruthfrom myCore.Test your breath against meSay lies all--I will not believe them.Here am I,Proof Against your intransigence.But do not despair:There…

More Corpses

12541254 views55 comments55 favs

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

Sequence Instead of Services on Sunday

12541254 views33 comments22 favs

We reach for things and objects// made of ever smaller things and objects

What It Takes

12541254 views22 comments22 favs

So tell me what it takes. // My wallet is so fat / I sit lopsided.

Little Ditty Down

12541254 views66 comments44 favs

I got caught writing poems at the paint factory several times before they fired me I got caught in the middle of one of my best lines but can’t remember what I meant to say anymore, but I know, just know it was something real good,

Bird's Eye View

12531253 views22 comments11 fav

seven birds on the wire turn in unison to the right

Enigmas

12531253 views11 comment11 fav

Fish don't walk.

My nose

12531253 views00 comments00 favs

When I was 14 I accidentally heard a woman saying behind my back

Oh Captain, Good Captain: Part III

12531253 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 …

Labor Day

12531253 views11 comment11 fav

The coals lose their glow.Sun kisses the back of my neck goodbye.Someone plays Boys of Summer one more time.The cooler tips... The tides go out...

Frederick and Sarah

12531253 views00 comments00 favs

They'd driven the car there but had lost the keys so that it simply sat out in the yard, the yard of the house they couldn't leave because they'd lost the keys to the house as well as to the car, so they were kind of stuck. Their neighbors…

Totem Song

12531253 views00 comments00 favs

Will you leave me, you, the one?

Diamond Dash

12531253 views33 comments11 fav

I pointed to the strange man. “Who’s this?” I said. Ethan looked puzzled. “That’s a man with his head on fire.”

"It's Just Breakfast" Fills Dating Service Niche

12531253 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.”

Loop

12531253 views33 comments33 favs

At night, I watch TV shows with fictional characters who lead my life.

WILD

12521252 views11 comment11 fav

Most days you couldn't win; the constant nag from the fact that it was all a game was your only comfort. I was at the unemployment office again. The gal at the counter'd seen me enough to know when the printer was out of ink so she could walk away.

Lentil Soup

12521252 views00 comments00 favs

"You're my husband, for chrissake!"

Almond

12521252 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

no one answered

12521252 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

Rash Reading

12521252 views00 comments00 favs

I got a rash under my wedding ring. I took the ring off and filed for divorce the next day. Mike begged me to stay. But when you can't trust your judgement, you have to trust the signs. Mommy had a rash like that. I used to see it in the shower. People think it's…

Spare Parts

12521252 views22 comments22 favs

Breaker's Yard Blues!

roses, a dozen

12521252 views66 comments00 favs

I know I shouldn’t brag, but you bought me roses, a dozen. I felt I could balance anywhere, when I was with you. I could achieve poise on the head of a pin. There was no need to hide anything, and I heard night music wherever we went. I sat with lovers,

Band Member

12521252 views22 comments00 favs

If I had one of those, she said, I’d never get anything done. So naughty. Now my bones get goose-bumps too. We were playing in my rock group Spotty Behavior, and she was lead singer in The Young Vaginas, fronting for a band called The Cherry

Nola Visit

12521252 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.

A Question for the Gods

12521252 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…

A Man, a Market and a Mayor

12511251 views22 comments00 favs

He sat on the floor and said, "I found this letter W in the jungle. It's b-b-beautiful,"

Peace be with you

12511251 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…

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

12511251 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.

Pilot Wannabe

12511251 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

Status Update

12511251 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