Most read stories

Hail Mary Pass

22102210 views99 comments55 favs

so for penance, the priest gave me the full twelve Stations of the Cross

Trumpet Voluntary

22102210 views99 comments22 favs

"There's a concert next month," Sherry said. "Why don't you come to that and I'll introduce you? Then we can go from there."

Bad Boys, Bad Boys, 2

22092209 views11 comment11 fav

I ran into Geary Marston in front of the French Hotel Café, across the street from Chez Panisse. I was sitting outside at a small round metal table. A girl that looked like a Degas model was selling flowers on the sidewalk in front of the hotel. Her shor

See No…, Hear No…, Speak No…,

22092209 views11 comment00 favs

“People are staring at us,” Cat said softly into Marcel’s ear. “We look like an interesting couple,” Marcel replied. “Of course people want to look at us.” Cat nibbled on that thought for a while. New York City is the kind of place where people ra

Where Time is Water

22092209 views22 comments11 fav

Dog time is water. Incidents bob near the surface, fall into whirlpools, sink or drift with the flow.

Balconies

22092209 views77 comments11 fav

In a few brief moments the entire sky became full of this wetness and greyed to the point of almost blackening, and it was a Sunday morning, and the man thought that thoughts were strange things, because he had a piercing epiphany that there was no God..

When the Ocean Was Ours

22082208 views88 comments66 favs

The Ocean used to be ours. When the stars were still fire and they were the only light burning though the dim, hazy nights, the ocean was ours. Before the smog, and the lights that were carried by the men who rose from the sea, the ocean was ours. We…

The Kisses of a Satyr

22082208 views66 comments44 favs

“I better go. My mom needs me at home,” she says. Soft. Smooth. Firm. Sweet. Maybe I’m pushing too hard. I kiss her on the cheek and she stiffens in response. My heart bleats.

ALL THE BASTARDS AND ME

22082208 views55 comments44 favs

The apartment was a second-level place, so I went down the steps and looked through the stained glass window of the door. “Ah hell,” I said to myself. Raymond Carver and John Fante and Charles Bukowski were outside. I opened the door.

Abu Arif & His Daughters

22072207 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.

Liebe Grüße

22072207 views22 comments00 favs

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

Purveyors of Leeches

22072207 views1616 comments1313 favs

I am a purveyor of leeches. All my friends are purveyors of leeches. We meet weekly to compare our wares.

Life as a Porno

22062206 views1515 comments1111 favs

It could as well be late night infomercials/ saturating the screen// with medieval looking exercise machines

The Spaceman and the Venusian Vampire Vixens

22062206 views22 comments11 fav

It’s late July, and I’ve just been given the assignment to cover Paganfoil’s ‘Warbird’ tour. To tell you the truth, I really loathe this assignment. I never, ever, EVER cared for hard rock or heavy metal or whatever they’re calling it this dec

Winter Blues

22062206 views99 comments66 favs

He told me he could feel an army of tears building up behind his eyes.

excerpt from a forthcoming novel

22062206 views44 comments33 favs

I wriggled in the bed and felt the sheets soaked with perspiration. My arms were lined with tape and tubing, needles pressed in veins. I reached for the cloth again and again, and every time they stopped me. The hands that came were cold and hard, urgent

Old Vibrations

22062206 views2323 comments2020 favs

There's always a sound, something triggering the fear.

over me

22062206 views44 comments33 favs

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

April

22062206 views2020 comments1010 favs

A riot of greens

Rude Awakening

22062206 views11 comment00 favs

Vito suddenly found himself wide awake. He was unable to recall having fallen asleep or dreaming or awakening. It seemed he'd just entered bed, yet a glance at the windows told him it was already the middle of the night.

Pentagon City

22062206 views1313 comments88 favs

I had been in bed for a couple of days and by this I mean sleeping for fifteen or sixteen hours at a time. I don’t think that I believed in God anymore. I no longer knew how to stay awake.

The World's Loneliest Girl

22052205 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.…

That Crazy-Ass Willy Wonka Boat

22052205 views33 comments00 favs

I was crouched under a bruise-purple sky on a field of battle. I held a World War I-era weapon, an ancient black-iron spear with a spring, and I was told to load balloons onto it without popping them, and then I was to fire the balloons at some unnamed ta

Martyr

22052205 views00 comments11 fav

The everlasting shone through when skirting the tenuous threshold of the two worlds.

Red Left Hand

22052205 views55 comments33 favs

"I see a child's bicycle swarmed by bees. A stolen oil painting of a helicopter...no, no, that ain't it. Wait. A high school basketball coach will hang himself from a bridge you often think about. This man, now, he's a Navajo Indian.

Here be Dragons

22052205 views22 comments22 favs

Most nights while in his sleep, with his one good eye deeply shut, the old man can hear the whispers of the specter in the remote wanderings, holding the surrounding woodlands in its snare. The sound of it closing in, with the bones of the universe crushing in…

Why I Don't Write Sex Scenes Anymore

22052205 views1111 comments99 favs

I’ve had my face talked off by those types (and I’m sure you’ve met a few) who need to say and hear “special” words, and they go "unh-hunh, unh-hunh, o yeah, o yeah, unh hunh."

Tadpoles

22042204 views2525 comments1717 favs

Whole frogs are/ too difficult.

Everything I Have Is Broken

22042204 views2020 comments99 favs

My mother’s old china no longer reflects. It’s value is now estimated as drywall.

Berniece

22032203 views66 comments11 fav

"I expect 50% of the agreed fee. In cash.” I dropped the envelope at the designated spot and parked up the street.