Most read stories

Monaco Memories

689689 views88 comments44 favs

Back then he raced, grinding gears and skimming the edges of death.

Shots Below the Brow

689689 views1010 comments77 favs

His self-assurance says/ he’s practiced in the art/ of self-deception

I Take Out The Garbage

688688 views1515 comments99 favs

I Take Out The Garbage

Luminous Nights, 1

688688 views33 comments11 fav

It happened almost overnight. There were long lines of cars at every filling station. There was anger, open hostility. Cars were backing into one another in line, trying to jockey for position. I don't think anyone could believe this was really happening

Late Eulogy

688688 views77 comments33 favs

We wished it had been murder./ It’s easier to hate for hurtfulness/ One you never knew.

Why Is This Woman Smiling?

688688 views22 comments11 fav

I was at the doctor’s office They had a poster of the Mona Lisa and the caption underneath it read: “Why is this woman smiling?” Well, it wasn’t because she was over 50 and had yearly mammograms It was because she was 20 something

Mythical Houses

688688 views00 comments00 favs

I remember meeting this famous rock musician once, when I was in real estate. He could be such a jerk. It seems like the famous ones always are. He saw my friend Susan talking to herself in the kitchen at a party where we were. “That woman is never alon

Maybe I'm Not Totally Non-Violent

688688 views22 comments00 favs

I knew this woman would come up eventually. She used to wait on us at Villa Nova, while a bunch of us sat drinking

LOL

688688 views33 comments11 fav

LOL? What does that mean? It’s showing up like everywhere. You make me LOL? Is that equivalent to puke, do you think? But no, they would have said: you make me want to LOL. And I’m like HMB, you know, Holding My Belly, To Keep From Puking. TKFP.

There Are Over 200 Religions In the World

688688 views44 comments33 favs

I am the man who was fired from a thousand jobs I was the model you saw pointing at the gleaming red Maserati At the Miami Art Fair, as if you did not already see it I was the girl named Calorie in that infamous diet commercial I was the boy named

Quantum Mechanics

688688 views22 comments11 fav

It seems a little solipsistic/ but may indeed be evidence of God// given its mystery and caprice.

Remembering a Life

688688 views00 comments00 favs

“Yes. You should probably bring her in.” This was what the receptionist from the Metropolitan Veterinary Hospital told me. My dog, Goldie, had a bloody nose and was breathing heavily.

Woody met Louise

688688 views77 comments77 favs

Times were tough. They met out on the right-of-way on Highway 61 heading south, each trying to hitch a ride to New Orleans where they might find work. Albert walked up to her lugging a saxophone in a scuffed up case. Mamie had old cloth suitcase. After handshake bona fides…

Crush

688688 views11 comment00 favs

I like you

Which Way to the Vomitorium

687687 views1818 comments1111 favs

When I saw that Chez Panisse was serving crawdaddies (the menu called them crayfish, but I know a crawdaddy when I see it), I relaxed. I didn't eat the ugly creatures when my brother fished them out of irrigation ditches back on our farm near Roswell, and

wanna ball?

687687 views22 comments11 fav

There was still another, in 1971. That would have been this girl who had been a student of mine at that little Midwest college (her name escapes me right now.) She came out to Laguna Beach one time when I was already living up in Santa Cruz, and we saw

Brewing

687687 views00 comments00 favs

...classic rock vibrating the walls...

Trompe l'oeil

687687 views1818 comments1313 favs

After her grief had subsided, the wife felt immediate relief. / Suddenly she was free to abandon or pursue loneliness

The Noise

687687 views77 comments55 favs

I'm hearing a noise. I can't see it. It's hiding and seems to be coming from the other side of the creek. With boots on I slowly wade across. The water makes its light lapping sounds. Reaching the bank, I search for the noise. It must have a face, suntanned and warm, that I…

Years of Co-Dependency

687687 views33 comments33 favs

The next thing I knew, the waiter was pouring wine into all our glasses. “How did you know we needed more wine?” I asked. His face grew red as he smiled, “Many years of co-dependency, honey.”

Snacking Sneak

687687 views00 comments00 favs

He was sitting in the library, slipping the pistachios nuts between his wet lips.

Christmas Eve

686686 views00 comments00 favs

It was Christmas Eve. Time for the ghost to visit. Just one ghost in this story. The ghost of a Christmas past. Just one Christmas for just one ghost.He looked out the window. Under the distant streetlight the snow was falling. He turned on his porch light. …

Josh and the Elder

686686 views00 comments00 favs

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

suggestive lipstick

686686 views00 comments00 favs

Maybe in some lie you told, your life began making sense. Not mine. But your quiet beauty may be what carries you. We have to both quit eating Couch Potato Chips, and read the book Tender Is the Squid, instead. Your ghosts – they’re so soft and sensitive.

You Do Not Exult Over the Held-Out Heart

686686 views22 comments00 favs

You can’t know everything you want to know, about anyone. (Especially about me!) You can’t even know everything you want to know about Sharon, and I probably know more than you do. In fact, I’m sure I do. For instance, did you know about that guy

Dubious Appetite

686686 views77 comments77 favs

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

The looking glass predator

686686 views33 comments22 favs

In the mirror an owl staring you in the face once again,/a fraught fragment of life’s puzzle. But you pretend it’s. . . .

Where the Subways Go Above Ground in Brooklyn

685685 views11 comment00 favs

The rocks are hot along the East RiverBelow hazy skies sent from Jersey Traffic.Pigeons peck at pieces of detritus,Walking calmly by pedestrians passingThrough the park during their allotted lunchHour. A girl with a strange frame —As if her ribs fused with her hips…

The Idiot King

685685 views00 comments00 favs

I stayed by the idiot king in his box, never ranging far, never letting the box out of my sight.

More L.A. Stories from the Land of One Night Stands, #3

685685 views22 comments00 favs

and lie down naked in my bed on her back, with her hands frozen at her sides like a deflowered virgin in the Gauguin painting “The Loss of Virginity,” almost breastless, and wait for me to lick her sopping until she almost came, but she could never quite