Most read stories

Ghosts

11141114 views22 comments22 favs

The man and the woman ate dinner together as they did most nights. It had become a habit over the years, back when they had children. Their lives were busy yet they always found time for one…

Return

11141114 views55 comments22 favs

We head home, skirting along the coast, humble before catapulting waves; the lighthouse near invisible if not for a single band of red.

another distance

11141114 views44 comments44 favs

only after you slipped away entirely

Skins of my past

11141114 views33 comments11 fav

The past follows, battered, bruised, always behind

white lights

11141114 views88 comments66 favs

the little white lights i see mean many different things to me

That Old-Time Religion

11141114 views00 comments00 favs

The road to heaven is littered for miles with dead sinners, or more precisely, the sides of the roads are lined with crosses on which the sinners are nailed. It has always been so, since time started ticking for Civilized…

blowing

11141114 views1111 comments55 favs

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

God Works Out of A Home Office

11141114 views55 comments55 favs

with binoculars neighbor reads screen text:

The Narrow Confines of Existence

11141114 views00 comments00 favs

It seems like that is all I really knowThe narrow confines of my existenceThe sun rises and falls somewhere,And all living things, move, work struggle and fightCarrying a bucket of water, while the sunBangs the day's rhythm on my armsThere's a war going on, all the…

Heroes

11141114 views00 comments00 favs

no one told him there was a place where heroes died, but he should have known it was in love

The Confounded

11141114 views22 comments11 fav

Your left hand cups your balls which are drawn up tight under a turgid fireplug cock. Your right hovers over your temple, thumb cocked at the cheek. Your eyes are dreamy, mouth wry, chest and belly furry and fat. You're a picture in a file on my desktop on which…

At the back of the crowd

11131113 views55 comments00 favs

They were all celebrating something, but she couldn’t see what it was.

Bottles of Happiness

11131113 views00 comments00 favs

She sold bottles of happiness at the marketplace. She woke up at dawn every morning to capture rays of happiness in the air. She would jump and let her fingers thread through each ray before sorting them into bottles. She always added a red ribbon to the tops of each…

Fall From Grace

11131113 views00 comments00 favs

My usual angel fell from the ceiling and onto the couch.

The Time of His Death

11131113 views44 comments00 favs

…if something happened to you so horrible that you no longer felt like living, would it have been better if you had died at birth? Okay, that's probably too early. No reason to act in haste. Maybe you should die when you're eighteen years old, just before…

Disparity

11131113 views00 comments00 favs

These were strange realizations, and each built upon the one before until I was completely mystified and unsettled in my life.

Writer's Block? Get Nacreous!

11131113 views33 comments11 fav

If you have writer’s block, it may be because your childhood wasn’t unhappy enough, but there’s nothing you can do about that now, is there?

My Darling Dead Ones

11131113 views11 comment11 fav

Do you remember?

one for the runners

11131113 views00 comments00 favs

it always takes too long to figure it out

From T.S. Eliot's Copybook

11131113 views00 comments11 fav

Thanks for the invitation, although you don't make the Undergraduate Verse Society Ice Cream Social and Poetry Slam sound very appealing.

Wonder as the Sum of All My Ignorance

11131113 views33 comments22 favs

Questions unanswered proliferate/ across the April sky, blue// with wisps of cirrus white.

The new year begins

11131113 views22 comments11 fav

martyred young women lie in hospital beds

Josh and the Elder

11121112 views00 comments00 favs

A cruel reminder of his irrelevance to the world of law, a world he had probably ruled for over 40 years.

Music and Books

11121112 views33 comments44 favs

You're all I've got to keep me company, but it's a very fine company. So familiar, and warm as any cold digital fireplace. I can tell you've got more in your story, but it doesn't make you happy. I really do not feel well today. Fun I wanted to…

observations on an autumn day

11121112 views1111 comments66 favs

macho bucks in velvet defy you driving down the lane

The Calendar of Minutes

11121112 views11 comment11 fav

He was prepared for this event.

A Prayer for Adelaide

11121112 views55 comments22 favs

Any God we could respect/ would listen, kind, to prayers,/ compassionate but resolute –

When Leaves Fall

11121112 views00 comments00 favs

And then she'd wipe her eyes, sweep her hair between the crest of her left ear and the side of her face and press that ear to the knot.

La sfida

11121112 views44 comments22 favs

You don't see the bruises ... you can't foresee the pain. It's intense, so deep and yet so volatile, in vain. He slapped my head once more while he uttered for the millionth time the same old words again: "You're a loser and you'll never win. I hate for you to be my…

BOLT-TOGETHER

11121112 views22 comments00 favs

I will watch your teeth measure the highway all the way home.