Most read stories

on a long suburban plain

11491149 views22 comments11 fav

We were stuck sweating it out on a long suburban plain when you left. Or else we’d mob the one visible hill (in Palos Hills, or Hillside) and turn the televisions on, looking behind us nervously, hopelessly, until every evening became a Wednesday evenin

The Nude Pianist: A Novel: Chapter 46

11491149 views44 comments22 favs

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

The Dummy Drop

11481148 views22 comments00 favs

I looked at my now silent cell phone feeling like an idiot. Thad was standing next to me, that shit eating grin plastered on his face like gravy stains on an old shirt."So Genius Jones, what the fuck did he say to you?" asked Thad, sarcasm dripping onto the floor. "She blew…

Someday

11481148 views22 comments00 favs

and as in real life, occasionally sneezed on.

Jump-start

11481148 views33 comments33 favs

"I don’t know what to do. I need to catch the 11:30 train, but what is the difference between doing it today or tomorrow?"

Reunion

11481148 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

WHAT IS PAID FOR

11481148 views11 comment11 fav

The lock came off easy—they only screwed a hinged hasp on the outside—it took a hard shove to get past a chair barricading the door. As I pushed my way in I heard a screeching crash. Lucky nobody was around. It was my first time bidding on a sheriff's sale…

A Way of Place

11481148 views22 comments11 fav

There are people walking, not knowing where they are, a way to peace is just that-- a place to go.

fastened together in silks in the Chicago night

11481148 views22 comments00 favs

I know our hearts were fastened together in silks in the Chicago night. In the great nurturing night, you were the (real) first. Yoked together, you were the first god to have complete leave of my body, for an hour, for all time, you were the first.

Other Brothers of American Crime, Chapter Fourteen

11481148 views22 comments22 favs

An extended account of his criminal exploits for a criminal syndicate of Midwestern newspapers and radio stations hastened a change of career plans.

Knowing

11471147 views33 comments33 favs

I come here, to this very spot for a reason. Imagine — the illusion of knowing what is and is not. The contentment drops taste — one could suppose — like that.

no-name time of day

11471147 views1313 comments99 favs

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

Wonder Boy Wonder

11471147 views55 comments33 favs

He knew it was messed up and wrong, but sometimes she was the last thing he’d see before the dam burst. It made him feel both the best and the worst.

Drought

11471147 views88 comments77 favs

Everything is at sixes and sevens.

A Hundred Feet

11471147 views22 comments11 fav

Why I roamed these flats, choir-Like floors of a century forgivenAnd wedded in an XXL gownIs beyond us. Give me something extra, please. This Town rides in like a school bus.

2 Poems featuring A Century of Art

11471147 views66 comments55 favs

"MAN S FEET HAVE GROWN/SO BIG THAT HE/FORGETS HIS LITTLENESS"--DON MARQUISA Century of Art by Darryl Price"Man's feet have grown so big that he forgets his littleness."--Don Marquis Everything in this chummy little place talks to your face without stopping to…

Drinking the Wild Virgin

11471147 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

A Story About A.Who Wants to Be An Entrepreneur

11471147 views22 comments11 fav

A. wants to be an entrepreneur but cannot get with the program.

Dubious Appetite

11471147 views77 comments77 favs

Looking back now, examining from a distance the sequence of events I failed to connect as anything beyond queer happenstance...

The We

11471147 views22 comments11 fav

You gotta see this new drugdelivered thru a procedurally exacting pill Sugar coated yetcompletely foul tastingDrought drowning and will make you blowfish-cheekedIt creates coincidences with bafflement and symmetry Meaningfully uncertain…

The Tote Bag Song

11471147 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

Of Poems About Figs and Farts

11471147 views00 comments00 favs

When Prince Rainier III asked an expert whether there was a literature of Monaco, her research produced only a suggestive ode to a fig and a poem about a fart.

Clockwhipped

11461146 views88 comments44 favs

I now felt prepared to waltz under a K bullet that hits a stucco brick above the tropical hibiscus.

Famous Female Artist

11461146 views11 comment11 fav

My dog Alfie and I would get in my van and go out at midnight for a doughnut. Or an éclair. A French cruller, to be exact. Sometimes we would get Blondie's Pizza on Telegraph Avenue near the Berkeley campus, if it got to be too lonely and restless at nigh

Mo Bands

11461146 views22 comments22 favs

Beeswax Just Kill Me Beam Me Up Deep-Fried Twinkie End of Lust Hootchie and the Eye Patch Boy Crazy Instant Success Sleeping Geezers Cyber Shoes

A Political Man

11461146 views22 comments22 favs

There's a potent multimedia declaration Flying eagles starred and striped Mocking cartoon independence Where every promise shines Not every veteran's hero Chequered drug misuse Glorious public relations Concealed a…

Falling

11461146 views00 comments00 favs

She lets the book drop through her fingers to the floor and stares straight ahead watching the red lights streak by in the darkness. The train rocks her away from the seat and back; she rolls her spine along the plastic to absorb the motion, taking it away from…

Intensive Seminar Helps Cat Poets Sharpen Their Claws

11461146 views66 comments11 fav

With a notch in his ear from an honor-mad fight And a tail that is shorter than at last sunlight.

Lost and Found

11461146 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.

Mirror, Handheld

11461146 views1414 comments1515 favs

the making by taking away