Most read stories

YOUR TONGUE

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I will try

There Were Giants In Those Days, and the Wickedness of Men

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We laugh at them, parading two-by-two, the elephants rolling tail to trunk across the makeshift gangplank, wide slats flexing under their sway. A pair of snakes contemplates gulping a pair of frogs and their clandestine movements stun a cricket and his mate. Birds squat…

How To Tell If He's A Psycho (Online Edition)

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Aside from smearing your mascara, destroying your freshly manicured fingernails, and pulling up your skirts in an unladylike way, being slain is a drag! How do you know if murder is on his mind when all you see are his words?

You Were a Hard Act To Follow

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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

Tangled Up in Glue

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Shhhh, my husband is trying to write...

Spare Tire

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'What now!' he thought, like a goddamn idiot, chiding himself like a fool giving himself a slap upside the head. 'Last thing I need is a shootout!'

The Theory of Color

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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

Who's Going To Clip the Toenails of God?

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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?

When the Germans Were On the Roof of the World

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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

Sometimes, Death

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He was surrounded by bats and stalactites and skeletons greeted him and dead celebrities moaned and neon signs -- props from defunct game shows -- were hung up as far as the eye can see.

Call Me Rust

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Call me anything but Ishmael. Call me Enamel.

on Fox River

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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

The Mud Slicks at Low Tide

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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

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

substance shadow spirit

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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.

The World of Willy Gregg

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Death threats? Just another mumbling day in the world of Willy Gregg.

Back Down Below

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

No New Clothes for the Empress

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

Chicken Sexers Set to Go For Gold in London

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Green Ridge, Missouri features a horseshoe pit on the town square and not one but two full-time village idiots.

Two Cents a Bale

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“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.”

Ripple Effect

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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

no more than a scent

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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…

The Song Left in Me

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The sky’s on fire with existence When I’m around you Your wandering kisses enter my soul But your quiet beauty may be What really carries you It is like Finding and touching the Pearl of existence To be near you Was that your tattoo

InSiDe

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

Hauntings

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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…

The Silken(revised version)

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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…

Cortizone

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so i slather cortizone on the bite marks of my experiences

Still Pretty

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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

I Listened to Country Music

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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

everybody knows

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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