Most read stories

Out in the Street

11891189 views44 comments11 fav

As kids, we grew up in a city that we swore was suburbia. Nearly every street had a few houses with a kid or two that was missing their front teeth. There were kids we knew well and kids we'd wish we'd known but they lived a few…

Late Night Phone Call

11891189 views00 comments00 favs

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

The Story Teller

11891189 views00 comments00 favs

I would read her stories on quiet summer days as we sat along the river, just the two of us stretched out in the tall grass, hidden in the shade of the pine trees lining the banks of the Mullica while a gentle breeze cooled our skin. She liked the way I read to…

Advice from the Receptionist

11891189 views33 comments11 fav

The president is truculent today.

End of an Astronomer

11881188 views33 comments22 favs

GULLS, GULLS, GULLS

11881188 views00 comments00 favs

"The shipyards of the soul do not exist." The Colussus has always been a colossal waste, and the riddle of Your Father's Identity confounds no one but yourself. What a riddle, what pills! He was known for…

Drunk, There are Cymbals for Everything

11881188 views00 comments00 favs

On the way back from New Jersey this afternoon, my dad kept pressing “seek” on the radio dial so he could find WBLS, which we listened to last night, also on our way back from New Jersey. I was driving last night because I wanted to and because I think my dad…

blowing

11881188 views1111 comments55 favs

elton wrings the melody from the words into the silent but pulsing air

Drinking the Wild Virgin

11881188 views44 comments33 favs

I really think we ought to be drinking The Wild Virgin again I remember having a beer once And feeling like a minor god, yes Just like you did So, now, listen to me: if she snores all night That’s one thing But if she screws the lights out

Smoker

11881188 views33 comments11 fav

I inhale the smoke from a burning cigarette held between two stained fingers that are not mine.

FIREWORKS

11881188 views22 comments00 favs

It's eight fifteen in the morning, my favorite time to call, and a guy named Ernie DeCampo answers the door in his work pants and a t-shirt. “Good morning, Mr.De Campo,” I say. “Do you have any fireworks in your home?” …

Concrete

11881188 views1313 comments1010 favs

The man who makes the noose

Fragments

11881188 views11 comment00 favs

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

no-name time of day

11871187 views1313 comments99 favs

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

hump daze

11871187 views00 comments11 fav

Before you start reading this it is important that you understand that I know nothing about the evolution of horses or camels. I mean, I literally know zilch about which came first or if they are even part of the same family. In my head I imagine one of those charts…

Seventy

11871187 views22 comments11 fav

She was a rich widow who lived down the street.

Reunion

11871187 views22 comments11 fav

You’d think we all would have learned something in our hearts since the towers fell, he thought, as Amy slid away from him. You had to get some perspective on the city, some view from outside, far outside, maybe from space, which would have afforded them

Spring Darkness In the Age of Video

11871187 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

11871187 views00 comments00 favs

My tongue lashes out like a whip.

Aloneland

11871187 views00 comments00 favs

I think I have experienced this before: This fractal sigh upon the star-scarped floor, That makes this concrete mock of valley heath- Below the traffic lanterns at the door, Of frigid other flowers lovers ‘queath None but their eyes to.…

The Woman on the Train

11871187 views44 comments33 favs

When I awoke she was there again, the woman with the blue scarf. She was standing by the compartment door, gazing out at the passing countryside, the rolling hills of France. I had seen her before, at the market buying flowers, outside a cafe hailing a taxi,…

The Old Man

11871187 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

11871187 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

Hitler's Younger Brother, the Mohel

11871187 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

Wednesday

11871187 views11 comment11 fav

“Goodnight,” he said before leaving the room and shutting his bedroom door behind him. She stood in the kitchen alone now, a shot of vodka poured into a shot glass, and a bottle of coke ready to swig afterwards. This didn't make her an alcoholic…

The Nude Pianist: A Novel: Chapter 46

11871187 views44 comments22 favs

Maria Monsanto, the curator of Francesco Martinelli's Atmospheres show, stood in the middle of the third-floor gallery.

Arrivals and Departures

11861186 views1111 comments1010 favs

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

BARCELONA CON AMORE

11861186 views11 comment11 fav

The fog drifted in, wreathing the woman in undulate shadows as kleigs danced in wind and ships moaned. Souchet had come through the Barrio Chino to stand on the pier at the hour when dead cease their ramblings and sleep.…

The Parallel World of the Tango

11861186 views33 comments11 fav

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

After coming back from nowhere,

11861186 views1212 comments66 favs

you notice some of what you need― a pressure of something you've intended, somewhere without a place,