Most read stories

Liebe Grüße

19831983 views22 comments00 favs

Left, I see parkland and cyclists and sun. Right: picnic blankets, naked men and lunchtime assignations.

What I Learned About Death While Eating Dark Chocolate

19831983 views77 comments66 favs

85% extra dark cocoa:/biting into bitter darkness

Running Wild in the Neighborhood Today

19831983 views1616 comments1414 favs

The psychiatrist was a man who clearly meant to calm his patients, the students. You could tell by his sweater and his neatly combed, plumy hair and the wire-rim glasses he wore. But he was not good at his job. You could tell this by how bad he was at cal

We Talk in a Roundabout Way

19831983 views1313 comments66 favs

You are a boy with a birthday bike smiling like our son, standing in a photograph surrounded by other sons, who turn rocks over and over, who keep snakes in plastic bread bags, who find the bones of something wild in the woods. You smile that way still.

Eclipse

19821982 views22 comments11 fav

On the first day of autumn, in the rear courtyard of the Léger estate, Yvette Mongrain was scrubbing down the glass tables and wrought iron chairs that had been trucked in from Paris the morning before and arranged across the flagstones.

Postcard from a local

19821982 views99 comments66 favs

Wish you weren't here, Moon man in your cargo shorts.

This isn’t Silverlake anymore

19821982 views1010 comments99 favs

I hear the slightly scratched voice of Joan Baez coming from the record player singing about the junipers in the pale moonlight, applause erupting like hailstone on a corrugated iron roof. I am singing back through the bedroom wall, wishing the

Antenna

19821982 views1717 comments1010 favs

When I squint at her from across the table I can see the waveforms created by her carrier signal.

My Recycled Soul

19821982 views11 comment00 favs

Forever Implies To my recycled soul That it is achievable If only I stretch myself Towards it

What if god was one of us?

19821982 views11 comment11 fav

an old Black woman, a sequined black cap poised on the left of her crown of black infused gray hair.  A gray wool shawl that seemed to perfectly match her hair's color wrapped her all the way down to her hips, where a battered pair of blue jeans rested

FOR SCIENCE!

19811981 views22 comments00 favs

According to the weatherman's morning forecast it was supposed to be a dark and stormy night. Unfortunately for Doctor Von Übel the weather had other things in mind...

Arcana Magi - c.24: Desperation

19811981 views00 comments00 favs

Oryn woke up in her desk. Sweat trickled from her forehead. Staring at her notepad, with her latest calculation, she forgot to go home. Her thoughts of Alysia calmed for now, but still lingered from her dreams.

A smile is worth 1000 teeth

19811981 views1313 comments44 favs

I was desperate for a social life but I couldn’t go out because I was too embarrassed to smile.

Playing with Fire

19811981 views66 comments22 favs

Six sentences

Poet Begging on Subway Car

19811981 views1313 comments88 favs

The subway train pulled up and I shuffled on board. I announced to the whole subway car: “I’m a poet.” And that was all I needed to do. It was like a miracle. Someone got up immediately and gave me her seat. People got in an orderly line and began

This Girl in That Shirt

19801980 views4343 comments2222 favs

At first when she walked in, I thought she looked like a wet dog. Then after a minute, I’m trying to wrap my mind around how perfect she is.

One Bag of Popcorn

19801980 views99 comments22 favs

“Dad’s a dick,” my sister said. I nodded. He threw $20 on the candy counter for one small bag of popcorn and told the girl to keep the change.

Acceptance is to her a phenomenon

19801980 views1414 comments77 favs

You were given blame for action as experience by cause and effect now. If you take apart blame and even forgiveness is too rigid. She thinks of that purpose as to give men sexual destiny.

Tadpoles

19791979 views2525 comments1717 favs

Whole frogs are/ too difficult.

Punk

19791979 views2222 comments1616 favs

My mother used to say she'll be just like you and you‘ll deserve it. I was a Punk Rocker. A rebel. Emily worries about things like grades and sports. She's on the soccer team. I got stoned under the bleachers. Emily, is a good kid. …

Pieces

19791979 views88 comments33 favs

I was a whole man once.

Breadfruit

19791979 views88 comments44 favs

... we both know how we go to fresh air like fish, gasping.

horrible haiku

19791979 views1010 comments77 favs

Carthage, Rome subdued:/itself, Rome never long tamed./Memento mori.

The Zilch Belches Out Its Own National Anthem To the Trendy Crowds

19781978 views2525 comments55 favs

" Not a day goes by/ that isn't stabbed with common sorrow"--Maurice Manning Crazy's alright by me if it's a harmless plea for some little sanity, or unavoidable by birth but it just won't do for tricks. Like say I go over there right…

Poets Who Thrum

19781978 views1515 comments1313 favs

Poets who thrum jirble and thwack Poets who thrum eat quorn with raw swamms Poets who thrum are eristic (not shambolic) Poets who thrum deliciate unto kench when they freck

Oh, Dada!

19781978 views11 comment00 favs

Daddy? Yes, hun. What do you think about life? Did you ask your mother? I'm asking you. (lowers newspaper) Well, (squinting eyes) life gives you so much pumpkin. ! and (like a whip) and..? (brows almost touching the hairline)…

The winter I was going to meetings

19781978 views66 comments22 favs

It’ll die in there and the stairwell’ll stink for weeks, Greg says in the car. We’re quiet, considering that.

Neighbors

19781978 views22 comments11 fav

“Hear that?” asks my wife Amy. Books in hand, we relax on our flagstone patio. A shaft of late-day sun borrows through the maples' leafy canopy and deposits a dazzling, sunlit pool on Amy's lap. …

Bad Boys, Bad Boys, 1

19781978 views11 comment11 fav

My wife and I were sitting at the bar at Brennan’s down on 4th Street one night, drinking too much without eating. Geary had convinced us to come down there with him, for two reasons. One, to give us the lowdown on where to stay and what to do in New Yo

Stage Play in Five Acts of Her: Matinee

19781978 views1616 comments1010 favs

I could have writ­ten her as is with long bushy hair, skinned knees, over­hauls, blue­berry stains on her fin­gers and teeth because she eats them too much. I love her bet­ter this way, blueberry-stained and wild....