Most read stories

horrible haiku

19731973 views1010 comments77 favs

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

The Shreds of Flame

19721972 views00 comments00 favs

For years I watched behind the glass While merry parties purpled past But now the world’s a Solemn Mass And I can only think.

Blood By Pines

19721972 views55 comments55 favs

But all that they found at the top was bloody red spatters on pure white snowflakes. And beyond that footprints that got smaller and smaller until they disappeared completely into the spicy green pines.

Antenna

19721972 views1717 comments1010 favs

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

Three Poems in March, after Baca

19721972 views88 comments55 favs

I could love them all, your people, / Learn their differences, speak their tongues, / When there is no one there to hold you / But me, my arms would be wide enough / To hold armies of your need. Do not forget.

Running Wild in the Neighborhood Today

19721972 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

Poets Who Thrum

19711971 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!

19711971 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)…

Liebe Grüße

19711971 views22 comments00 favs

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

How Jellyfish Make Love

19711971 views22 comments22 favs

It was 1986 when I met you. We both lived on Decatur Avenue in a tank that had enough room for you, me, and all our fake plastic accoutrement. I was 30 years old -- really old for a jellyfish. Some people thought I'd die sooner. But I knew better. I was…

Slouching Towards Bethlehem

19701970 views66 comments55 favs

We didn't wear shoes in the summer, except for Sunday school and church. The soles of our feet were black and tough as shoe leather.

One Bag of Popcorn

19701970 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.

Like Counting Raindrops

19701970 views22 comments11 fav

When I glance at the bedside clock I realize that we have been making love in one way or another for nearly three hours now. I am filled with a certain secret smugness that I am still going strong. It has been a long time since I’ve done anything quite li

What if god was one of us?

19701970 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

Tadpoles

19691969 views2525 comments1717 favs

Whole frogs are/ too difficult.

FOR SCIENCE!

19691969 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...

Things Found In The Wreckage Of Angel 1508

19681968 views33 comments11 fav

A canister of unused laughter taken from the mouth of a baby not yet born A splinter of wood from a cross, perfectly preserved in dark tea taken from the belly of a dead Irishman A milky vial of smog taken from the air of Los Angeles circa 1965 A

The Anniversary

19681968 views55 comments44 favs

.... The sun tears through the windshield as if it were an six-foot wide magnifying glass and for a moment it feels to them both as if they are in a manipulated universe of fire and ice, storm and heaven, as it does when the skies crack and spread open a

Breadfruit

19681968 views88 comments44 favs

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

Neighbors

19671967 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

19671967 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

19671967 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....

My Recycled Soul

19671967 views11 comment00 favs

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

Boy Toy

19671967 views1616 comments99 favs

Sometimes you can't sleep.

Acceptance is to her a phenomenon

19671967 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.

Life of the Writer

19671967 views1212 comments77 favs

I am a romantic writer, true. But what comes after the romance is what fascinates me. A lover dying is the most beautiful scene I want to write. The most beautiful scene I have yet to write.

Me. You. Love.

19661966 views66 comments55 favs

In my own case, before Ellen, of course there was someone else. She—well, she was someone who I felt as if I’d always known and always would. And I think she felt the same about me.

Memory Box

19661966 views00 comments00 favs

Soft voices in private, in the street, city noise violence disappears she blinks her eyelids and I can hear the lashes intertwine and pull clear.

A smile is worth 1000 teeth

19661966 views1313 comments44 favs

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

What I Learned About Death While Eating Dark Chocolate

19661966 views77 comments66 favs

85% extra dark cocoa:/biting into bitter darkness