Most read stories

Back Down Below

899899 views1010 comments66 favs

Gotta be jumpin' gotta be hummin' some tune even when I'm alone I'm flirtin' with the moon (back down below)

on Fox River

899899 views22 comments00 favs

We are on Fox River and I am in the dark water swimming naked beside Rick DeMille with my white skin glowing as we come up behind you and Sharon in your dad’s ski boat sitting silent in the water, and I can hear Sharon whimpering, “Oh, Jesus! Jesus!” as

Call Me Rust

898898 views55 comments00 favs

Call me anything but Ishmael. Call me Enamel.

Hauntings

898898 views00 comments00 favs

What shall stain the page with metaphorical wisdom? Words fell short of intention, displaying only a faux interpretation of ultimate meaning. They drifted in and out, and he struggled to coerce their conformity to…

Thieves, a Fire, and Some Pretty Nice Ghosts

898898 views77 comments44 favs

All along scared of the lovesickness finding me. I'm not proud of sending that sweet choir on its way without a kind word chopped into its begging cup. Who cares? I'm scared. The problem is this house; it's sad. I notice when someone floats…

Cortizone

898898 views33 comments00 favs

so i slather cortizone on the bite marks of my experiences

Still Pretty

898898 views33 comments11 fav

I saw this woman on a date at Denny’s Friday night With her 8-year-old son No ring, vacant stare Still pretty But wolfing down A stack of pancakes, Looking around the restaurant Occasionally At a party of kids From some church Wh

The Fourth Prague Defenestration: 3

898898 views22 comments22 favs

Then Vladimir asked Ellen if she wanted to try out the dungeon. And she looked at me, and smiled. “Well, yes.” “What?” I said. “No, Ellen, no! Do not let him lock you in here, whatever you do.” “Do not worry. Do not worry. I am Janovsky, no? I hav

Neverfull

898898 views00 comments00 favs

Neverfull There are still things out there I haven't seen— a mere tadpole blindly clinging to the base of the pond. I reach for every star in the inkwell but none are close enough— even on toes tickling the edge you'll never…

When the Germans Were On the Roof of the World

897897 views22 comments22 favs

Hand shaking as she drinks from her cup, talking non-stop on her cell phone. Blue eyes, dirty blonde pigtails tied up with blue ribbons, pink polka dot shoulder bag, old pock-marks along her cheeks. Having long discussions over the phone wit

The Theory of Color

897897 views22 comments00 favs

The story of the black pen drawing a dark hole makes everything seem so elaborate and obscure. Or even a seven-year-old leading police on a wild car chase to avoid church. Or naming a new band Fuchsia, which looks like the beginning of an

everybody knows

897897 views22 comments11 fav

If ever there was a fire left smoldering, it was you. If ever there was a chance in hell to fan the flames and break out into a bonfire of the vanities, it was you. It was you in a heartbeat, and it was you for all time. I knew it the second you entered

You Were a Hard Act To Follow

896896 views00 comments00 favs

This wasn’t my first time, ever, but it was ours. This wasn’t the life of a pigeon after sex, you know, sucking some soda pop off the pavement. This was real. This was me up there on your ceiling! And I’m not so fond of lightning either. If you thou

The Silken(revised version)

896896 views66 comments55 favs

tentacles of stringy rains opens up the stage antics for this common February day to the fidgety audience at hand but it appears that they just won't be able to grab on, not this time. The familiar grumpy wind with…

Two Cents a Bale

896896 views33 comments11 fav

“Price has gone up,” Jim said. His head and his body were still, like a deer’s when it hears something. “It’s three cents a bale now.”

no more than a scent

896896 views00 comments00 favs

Art evades me persistently.Tonight is no exception.Outside, the bitter wind blows:suddenly, an oddity comes to minda memory, a glance. A mid summer nightheavy and taintedunder the neon lights.A foolish smile invites me income through the threshold of sinshe appears to…

Pharmaceutical Funnies

895895 views00 comments00 favs

Dracula enters the pharmacy looking sad but hopeful. The pharmacist pulls a sonnet out of his thumb and hands it to him. This is a novel by Bugs Bunny. Each page is a…

Who's Going To Clip the Toenails of God?

895895 views33 comments11 fav

Who will plume the chicken? Who tend the little flower of the soft person? Who steal the pea out from under the bank while you’re holding it up?

Wherever and Whenever

895895 views44 comments44 favs

It’s good to get fucked in the rain. It’s good to get fucked in the back seat of a power boat on a river in the hot summer air with the mosquitos sucking the life out of you. It’s good to get fucked with your bare back rubbing up against the

No New Clothes for the Empress

894894 views88 comments66 favs

Because I was not sure if the poet had said yearn or urine, I zoomed in on her mouth as she commanded the lectern...

Dylan to Return to Roots for Golden Years

894894 views11 comment00 favs

When informed that the returning celebrity is not Gary Puckett but Bob Dylan, the world-renowned singer-songwriter, Sklarski draws a blank. “Never heard of him,” he says as he takes off in his pick-up truck.

Tangled Up in Glue

894894 views1313 comments88 favs

Shhhh, my husband is trying to write...

In plague (o) veritas.

894894 views77 comments55 favs

...a falling forward that is sometimes so material that you get a look at your shoes as you fall past them...

I Listened to Country Music

894894 views22 comments00 favs

I remember telling you that I listened to country music. You surprised me with a whole tape that you recorded of all my favorites and I didn’t know how you figured them out, except that you must have snuck up beside my bedroom window at night. And

InSiDe

894894 views44 comments22 favs

dreaming in my cartoon life the car lifts its legs a hundred feet in the air

French Trains

893893 views44 comments66 favs

When I sit in the front-facing seat beside him, I feel him flinch a little and stiffen, not from fear but from aggression.

The Mud Slicks at Low Tide

893893 views77 comments44 favs

The mud slicks at low tide were a mood.Thick gobs that smelled of fish, sulfur and claysalt and wild seaweed like fungusmoldy like left out fruityet it drew her closerto the shorelinecloser to feelingit between her toesthick, squirtsas her feet liftedlike a suction cupand…

Slydexia for the Unimpaired in Eight Acts

893893 views44 comments33 favs

You tell its approach soon as veal resists both knife and fork, quick neutrinos land in internet ruby climes.

substance shadow spirit

893893 views44 comments33 favs

ride crests and troughs of ceaseless change, / without delight but without fear, / and once it’s time to leave, then simply go, / without regret, with no unseemly fuss.

Ripple Effect

893893 views22 comments00 favs

I discovered Ripple (by that fine winemaker Gallo) in a dusty “specials” bin at the back of a liquor store near skid row, off Maxwell Street, downtown Chicago. You may remember me bringing these bottles home with their screw-off caps. We drank tons