Most read stories

Spring Darkness In the Age of Video

12011201 views11 comment33 favs

This spring darkness is winding around my neckin the age of video, how many times I've seen her at the zoowith your eyes, as if seeing for the first timeher early morning breath, tripping your woman, your angelas she arrived on the beach when it was still too dark to see…

Sarcasm

12011201 views00 comments00 favs

My tongue lashes out like a whip.

the furrows running with milk light

12011201 views22 comments11 fav

I remember the first time you made love to me. It appears I was one of the lucky ones … it wasn’t in a car, it wasn’t in your Dad’s boat, underwater, or any other weird place you've written about. It was actually in your bedroom … in a bed! And how

A Nice Girl Is Like Powder

12011201 views22 comments33 favs

A nice girl is like powder, quick to anger, fresh, impudent, too quick to know what expletives fate speaks. It was a cold year for trash talk and sheer silk. And yes, the fox was smoking, who could attract or irritate a nice girl with the same look, a wom

paper doll

12011201 views22 comments00 favs

she covered me with down and kissed me good night, tucking in loose ends, whispering prayers... she cut me out of paper and blew me into life. she held the scissors near my neck in case i put up a fight. she covered me in clothes cut out of colored paper: polka dotted…

Five Million Yen: Chapter 51

12011201 views22 comments00 favs

Sounds like something a woman would do. —You think so? said Ben. What woman would do that to me? I don’t know any women in Nice.

A Guy's Guy Kind of Guy

12011201 views11 comment11 fav

I like to keep my mind uncluttered for truly fresh information, like the fact that T.S. Eliot taught Virginia Woolf the Chicken Strut. That's news you can use.

karmic youth

12011201 views22 comments00 favs

We were so easy, so willing to be drained, that to start making those puffed-up stories about us now, our courage, etc. would be purely misleading. Put a bottle, or glass of wine in our hand, and our panties flew off, and gladly we would have followed y

The United States Of Ammunition

12001200 views33 comments33 favs

I check the NPR news app. The story about the shooting in Pittsburg has already been pushed off the homepage. There is an article about yellow fever in the 14th century, a potential ceasefire in Yemen, players protesting the national anthem, a plane crash

no-name time of day

12001200 views1313 comments99 favs

"covered in a sheen of sweat, flowers of salt bloom on my T-shirt"

another distance

12001200 views44 comments44 favs

only after you slipped away entirely

Playground

12001200 views66 comments22 favs

The Keds-stubbed grass, toy trucks without wheels, and Band-aids threaded in the sand… Most parenting is vigilance. Seconds ahead of its own sound, a passenger jet spears the heights not far above the treetops, …

Song Without Wonder

12001200 views44 comments44 favs

What I’ve got is priceless, but no one wants it. Hmmm. I wonder if I can give it away, or have to haul it to the dump? What I have is priceless. Priceless. What I have is priceless, but no one wants it.

Late Night Phone Call

12001200 views00 comments00 favs

When the phone rings that late at night, it’s not good.

The Old Man

12001200 views22 comments00 favs

The old man tied his black tie and put on a black beret. His bones hurt, but at ninety-two it was to be expected.

deserts wept freely over you

12001200 views77 comments33 favs

You had that quietness by nature (unusual in men) that I was attracted to. You were like some body of water, wide and more spiritual than anyone I knew. You could have taken me with you when you flew. I know you were more like a bird than any of the oth

This is Not an Indie Movie

12001200 views22 comments11 fav

This is not an indie movie about love and happiness and Al Green songs redone by actresses pretending to be songwriters.

The Party and the Body

11991199 views00 comments00 favs

The Party and the Body The party at my mother's ended Saturday night deep into Sunday's morning. I tried to remember the exact circumstances of the end but although they wouldn't come it didn't worry me. I knew I would remember at a certain point. It…

Quit Complaining, Willya!

11991199 views00 comments00 favs

"You think life is supposed to be easy? Whoever told you that? My life is anything but easy; still you don't hear me whining all over the place. And, trust me, I could teach you a thing or two about suffering.

Schadenfreude

11991199 views44 comments44 favs

It's 50/50 that you'll ever pad your knee enough to ever kneel on it. Your back hurts, the Orthapedist labels it arthritis. I think that means we're getting old, so I crawl up the tower of your body as I'm a little younger, more sprightly. You're a

Arrivals and Departures

11991199 views1111 comments1010 favs

Because of her I got there early, and like I figured, the train was late.

Roommate, 2006

11991199 views00 comments00 favs

I love her now, but I used hate her because she’d leave hairs on my bar of soap.

The Parallel World of the Tango

11991199 views33 comments11 fav

I dreamed I might one day become the numero uno tango singer in Boston.

Incantatory Plea to the Civic on Interstate 75

11991199 views1010 comments77 favs

May the timing belt stand the stress again

Hitler's Younger Brother, the Mohel

11991199 views44 comments22 favs

And now for a word from Hitler’s Younger Brother, the Mohel Well, half brother really He was always such an embarrassment to the Hitler family Always climbing the infinite tree of hope Against the permanent limb of gravity No gratitude or all

The Heart

11991199 views00 comments00 favs

Oh, I cant stop singingThis human heart beatingWhat people say do not interest meAs much what goes on in their heartsThe heart is were they are really atNo matter what they saySome call it the IdSome call it the subconscious Some call in the willSome call it the…

Biblos Melas

11991199 views00 comments00 favs

While laying in his hospital bed recovering from a minor heart attack, Professor Martin Hellman reads details of an ancient book he has been given for translation--Biblos Melas, or, the "Black Book." Excerpted from the forthcoming novel "Minion Web."

Act Of Contrition

11991199 views11 comment22 favs

I haven’t written a poem in months.

Fragments

11991199 views11 comment00 favs

Your insincere smile, eyes drowning in kohl. Sweat and sweet talcum, and the maroon cashmere stole.

The Tote Bag Song

11991199 views33 comments22 favs

You can ask so many questions Of what’s it all about You can empty out the closets And roll the mothballs out But no one has the answers It’s all a mystery There’s a bigger picture But it’s really hard to see