Most read stories

Sheer

20852085 views22 comments22 favs

That's when we struggle, got it? Right there on the floor. It's not the brawl of the century, and I'm not the pilot who delivers the Enola Gay.

over me

20852085 views44 comments33 favs

What you may see initially could be only half the poem. The rest is hidden.

Working Title: "Third Persons"

20852085 views00 comments11 fav

#1 MISCELLANEOUS NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: What kind of person would the author’s daughter, Gracie, become? That things didn’t look bright for her future was an understatement: Mother: alcoholic, dead at age 25 from puking her brains out; Father: m

A Traitor of the Better Kind

20852085 views1313 comments1313 favs

Go ahead, boy, pout like a fool.

A Little Fishing

20852085 views88 comments66 favs

Len and I sit on Harpo's porch, drink beer and gab. It's hot, even for July. Len and I joke and laugh, and Harpo stares off into the middle distance.

The Basement of Desire

20852085 views2626 comments1818 favs

sooner or later you realize

Cornfield

20842084 views2727 comments1313 favs

This is not a story you expect to end at Cape Horn.

The Perils of Open Hand

20842084 views22 comments22 favs

There are worse things than getting your ass kicked by a 12 year old Puerto Rican kid. This was exactly my thinking as he stood over me, his pre-pubescent screams sounding like a baby Bruce Lee, preparing to finish me off.

Three Poems in March, after Baca

20832083 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.

Dust and Blood

20832083 views22 comments00 favs

A black wind raced ahead of the Merbreth and Juko could smell the thing's fur, matted with the blood of men. The coppery scent mingled with the fear coming off the men around him, a fear so palpable it became a tangible thing, something to be tripped over

What the Dark Matter Says

20822082 views2121 comments1818 favs

There can be no convergence./ There is only the talking that talks about/ an angle of sight nothing else can share.

The Things That Danny Said

20822082 views66 comments33 favs

Danny said that you like him now. He smiled like it was the best news that he could give me, but his eyes dared me. …

My Recycled Soul

20822082 views11 comment00 favs

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

A Sonnet for Anna

20822082 views3030 comments2020 favs

Toting a sawed-off shotgun at the altar

Prawns

20822082 views33 comments33 favs

The white Styrofoam box sits on the prep station. It was delivered a few hours earlier. Half awake, I don a black apron and grab a large cutting board. To keep it from slipping, I put the cutting board on a damp towel laid…

Abu Arif & His Daughters

20812081 views00 comments11 fav

I cannot remember what the celebration was for, but the baby was at its center. We passed him around, a sweet smiling boy about seven months old. The age when babies can sit but can't yet crawl and their thighs get plump.

One Bag of Popcorn

20812081 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.

How the Species Began Again, I

20812081 views00 comments00 favs

Tina saw a tear escape from beneath the frame of the man’s broken glasses. It followed the contour of his cheek until it quivered along his jaw line.

April

20812081 views2020 comments1111 favs

...he thought often of the rollicking waves, of being pulled under, of being weightless and senseless...

Running Wild in the Neighborhood Today

20812081 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

Lule of Raw

20812081 views1919 comments88 favs

A discussion at the homeless colony under the expressway overpass crossing the river:

The World's Loneliest Girl

20802080 views99 comments88 favs

Turns out it was you. But. You made it into the latest dumping ground in spite of their voted insults. In spite of being told you weren't even going to be around to be danced with. The loneliest girl now looks perfectly trim and trendy to all eyes.…

my father's fear

20802080 views99 comments88 favs

my father has a phobia of dentists./ he also once felt/ that if the house ran out of toilet paper/ he would lose his job.

Close those lips

20802080 views1010 comments44 favs

Ma tells me not to put a tampon between my legs. For fear of cotton fornication.

Wishing Fountain

20802080 views2626 comments2020 favs

People go through life all the time with only one kidney, or with some of their female-parts removed.

The Heron

20802080 views1010 comments1010 favs

Bob’s thoughts drift back to bird, the solitary creature in the field, dignified, unhurried, waiting. Bob wonders where he goes; surely he will move on when spring gives way to summer.

The River, Once

20802080 views1414 comments88 favs

once she went to quenchthen she went to scrubnow she collects dead toadsgrinds them with cornmeal to feed her sowsonce she ploughed the land toiled with her face deep in dark soil her back burning in hot sunnow she works in the paper millmaking laminated labels for the…

Sad News

20792079 views00 comments00 favs

They got out wearing their crisp brown Army jackets and khaki pants; she saw the cross on the lapel of the officer's shirt and just knew. These men brought sad news from faraway places.

Keep a Lid on It

20792079 views44 comments44 favs

Eventually, all the windows on the street went dark, each small house cloaking its occupants in a world unto itself, soundproofed and emotionally remote.

Insomnia

20792079 views11 comment11 fav

They sit, they create, they watch.