Most read stories

be kind to your pieces…/torn

11751175 views33 comments33 favs

Pieces that said shrug a shrug and then another and one to right with the eyes that squint and one to left with rhythm that never left. And piece after piece, after piece they stich themselves, née weave a tapestry that is the dance your very walk swayed

Bob the Builder

11751175 views33 comments00 favs

The concrete guy’s truck is parked in front of your house. There’s nothing for him to be doing there except your wife.

Night Letters from the Underground

11751175 views99 comments77 favs

As ghosts, they became lovers. Rodion would strum the Underwood keys like a balalaika. Lizaveta would sing.

Life As a Beach

11751175 views22 comments11 fav

Life is a beach, not an enormous ashtry.

Hide and Seek

11751175 views44 comments33 favs

In September she had been wise.

Brains

11741174 views33 comments22 favs

My memory is like tracks in the snow. My memory is cookie dough. My memory is dirty tube socks.

Ode to Tomorrow

11741174 views11 comment00 favs

If luscious lips lusted for love lost, they wouldn't be mine.

The Gift

11741174 views1111 comments44 favs

There is no need to worry about art. Art in its ideal forms stays safe. Real art resists being the object of attention. It directs your gaze, and it swings in you forever.

About My Dad

11741174 views44 comments22 favs

My dad was in a barber training school where they cut off the tip of a bum's ear and taped it back on with scotch tape

WHAT I LEARNED IN HEBREW SCHOOL

11741174 views77 comments66 favs

There was a big pile of dirt in back, where the little Hebrew School bochurs would play King of the Mountain—tugging, tearing, biting, punching, using whatever weapons they could get their tiny hands on to topple whoever scrambled up the mound first.

The Nude Pianist: A Novel: Chapter 29

11741174 views11 comment11 fav

The funk of wet wool, stinky feet, reeking armpits, stale beer and fried food created a bohemian fetor.

Kicking Out the Enjambs

11731173 views66 comments33 favs

I can be iambic when I want to / be!

Leave It To Cleavage

11731173 views00 comments00 favs

Thus was Rent-a- Rat, Inc born. At first it was Rent-a-Rugrat, but we changed it so the Army wouldn’t be onto us. Our first headquarters was out of a damned tent on Red Square, but we would get the hell out of there as soon as we could muster the necessar

Jacob Ellis

11731173 views22 comments22 favs

My name is Jacob Ellis. I was thinking about school and all those years and years and how they go eventually away but always remain somewhere in the mind as if imprinted on an akashic record. I was dizzy there, dizzy with dread and always on the verge of falling.…

Ah, the Trouble (Has Finally Arrived)

11731173 views77 comments44 favs

with all these little battle worn pieces of history surrounding us all the time is that they don't really make up for the terrible news of just now. Those people showed us what they showed us. Good for them.We're the direct explosion of their…

Encounter with Lover's Daughter

11731173 views00 comments00 favs

What happens when you accidentally run into your lover's daughter on a plane.

Deliverance

11731173 views55 comments44 favs

Bleeding quietly

002

11731173 views33 comments00 favs

there are nights when you're all alonein the darkwhere the only lightis the glow of the computer screenand words can't seem the scratchthe surface of your skulland bit by bitthe sentences, phrases, and lettersattached to your synapsesdrownin your subconscious

Oh Captain, Good Captain: Part IV

11731173 views00 comments00 favs

Oh Captain, Good Captain I went where you asked of me But now I'm back home And things are so clear to me The liquors been drained So my eyes have dried finally I'm seeking her out So her voice can stop haunting me When I see his face I'll…

Dangling Participles

11731173 views00 comments00 favs

Flies as big as raisins sucked spit off his lip as he slept. Not sleep in the strictest sense of the word because guys like him don't sleep, they merely avoid life between rampages. And this guy, well, he's gonna wish he'd avoided life a bit longer because when he…

Why I Write- Item Seventeen

11731173 views44 comments22 favs

I feel I am, in fact,/ the dimmest and least wise/ man on earth.

Cottontail Morning

11731173 views1313 comments66 favs

A murder of bunnies nibble the St. Augustine,

putting our bones together

11721172 views33 comments11 fav

I can still see us sitting, somewhere (was it in a café?) imagining what it would be like if our mutual faces blended into the future (the waiters posing as in a Manet painting.) Putting our bones together, our broad features, Bohemia and Sweden. Yo

Thank God for Kids — by Comparison, I'M 'Adult'!

11721172 views00 comments00 favs

[NOTE: PLEASE DEFER READING THIS UNTIL YOU'VE COMPLETED THE 'MONAD' (OR 'MILESTONE') YOU'VE NEEDED TO! THANKS! BE FOREWARNED!]

One Man's Post

11721172 views22 comments11 fav

There was a bottleneck ahead. We slowed down single-file, me behind, to wait our turn to pass the doorway of a vacant storefront church. In it, a lone black man sat atop an empty plastic milk crate. Nobody looked at him; they were all slowing down and cro

Time

11721172 views00 comments00 favs

TimeDoesnt existWe're told it existThe sun rises and fallAnd people exist for the eight Hour dayBut time does not existHuman beings put TIME in their lives To give it order Most people always seem to be looking for order!!Amidst the chaosIt goes very fast for someVery slow…

The Prom Queen and the Quarterback

11721172 views44 comments22 favs

Friday night, a bar downtown, beneath the swirling dots of disco lights, seated at a table by the door, I come across a Cheerleader from my high school days, having a Martini with the Quarterback she married. Even in forgiving light, …

From Day One

11721172 views55 comments11 fav

On the first night I met you, you fell in love with the waitress. She had a loud voice and a strong Irish accent. She wore an oversized t-shirt to minimize her large breasts, and baggy jeans. No makeup; crooked teeth. But you…

Five Million Yen: Chapter 62

11721172 views22 comments00 favs

She was wearing a robe, but her hip movement sent an ancient message.

Why Don't You Just Take Off Your Top

11711171 views00 comments00 favs

You were there at the beginning almost, when I wanted to write about the dead spider I smashed on my bedroom wall, comparing it to the blue/grey smoke of the blown-off fireworks drifting overhead.