Most read stories

over me

21242124 views44 comments33 favs

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

The Common Cold

21242124 views3333 comments1313 favs

There was dad sitting at the table, wide awake, reading glasses on nose, pen in hand above a Doppler graph of numbers on paper, one of many now-lost theorems, looking up as his son walked into the room.

4:45pm, Philadelphia

21242124 views1313 comments1313 favs

He stays a couple of yards behind me as we slog uphill. I try to diffuse the tension with a coy toss of head, slip on wet leaves. My ankle rolls and I splat noisily down. From my new angle his beard looks less stylish—bristles straggle all up his neck. He maintains…

The Basement of Desire

21242124 views2626 comments1818 favs

sooner or later you realize

Seattle November

21242124 views88 comments44 favs

He ate husks of bone and old paper scraps with yesterday's headlines, blowing down the street like tumbleweeds now at four o'clock in the morning.He wrapped himself in an old army coat against the November winds as he tramped back and forth, back and forth, up the ten…

Flirting With Immortality

21232123 views11 comment00 favs

That stupid bastard seemed to defy death at every turn in his life. His actions suggested invincibility, but his catch phrase indicated full awareness that he was indeed quite vincible. And how fitting was his name. We didn’t know if it

The Heron

21232123 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.

Abu Arif & His Daughters

21222122 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.

Honor Grade

21222122 views3030 comments1717 favs

It was a surprise they put me in a dormitory, not a cell,

No Title

21222122 views22 comments00 favs

She spilled her neurons across the dissecting board of the violin, breathed deep and forced herself outward with every exhalation. Her molecules mixed with wax and horsehair, and her heart valves arched in unison.

my father's fear

21212121 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.

Three Poems in March, after Baca

21212121 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.

Saturday Morning

21212121 views1111 comments99 favs

They kiss, opening their mouths into a smile, sharing a secret. Their kiss is so intimate. I blush, and look away embarrassed and a little aroused.

Punk

21202120 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. …

Friendship Pins

21202120 views77 comments22 favs

There were a lot of advantages to having shoelaces.

Heart 1.1

21202120 views11 comment11 fav

you wear the warmth of death/ and your heat eternity/ blasts on mourn from your heart

The Kisses of a Satyr

21202120 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.

Looney Tunes

21192119 views66 comments44 favs

I put my arms around her and whisper to her while she plays the piano. She wiggles and tells me to stop it.

Things Found In The Wreckage Of Angel 1508

21192119 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

Cornfield

21192119 views2727 comments1313 favs

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

The Beginning and End of Comedy

21192119 views66 comments11 fav

Puberty, for Ellen, was less than an overnight event—yes, she got her period in a more or less timely fashion, but what her doctor referred to coolly as secondary sexual characteristics—namely, boobs—took their damned sweet time in coming.

Arcana Magi - c.18: Me?

21192119 views00 comments00 favs

Alysia slowed down for a moment. She clutched her head again. She looked up and found herself at a playground. There was a familiarity in the air.

My Recycled Soul

21192119 views11 comment00 favs

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

Pentagon City

21192119 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.

Tobacco

21182118 views1717 comments1515 favs

When you prime tobacco the old way . . .

Dairy Queen Lust

21182118 views00 comments00 favs

I, personally, just had no interest in having some pimply-faced moron stick his tongue down my throat.

Dust and Blood

21182118 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

From The Doctor, With Love

21182118 views99 comments33 favs

I love how you touch me, your hands warm on my shape...

How I Invented the Designer Jean in 1968 (Memoir)

21172117 views11 comment00 favs

Before I was 18 years old, in my small home town of Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, Canada, I invented the designer jean...

The Vorpal Blade

21172117 views77 comments55 favs

Pow! I shoot him through his jelly donut.