Most read stories

Brother Dream

19681968 views22 comments11 fav

It’s always daylight there My brother comes running down the sidewalk holding out his arms and calling my name He’s wearing suspenders. He’s gotten thinner in heaven He embraces me warmly wanting us to be friends I give up trying to re

The Massacre

19681968 views55 comments55 favs

 …

The Basement of Desire

19681968 views2626 comments1818 favs

sooner or later you realize

AFTER

19681968 views1111 comments66 favs

You haven't lived until she dances just for you ..

My Relationship With Reading

19671967 views99 comments99 favs

What if I said; I never liked actually reading?

Poetry is like baseball

19671967 views33 comments33 favs

Poetry is like baseball.

Disorienteering

19671967 views00 comments00 favs

At night, on these New England roads, there is no light, no pink sodium-vapor glow, no guideposts.

Improbable Bodies

19671967 views2020 comments66 favs

The book has known many women’s hands, something erotic and frequently checked out from our local library. Its cover depicts a man and a woman, both with improbable if not impossible bodies. I believe the term is bodice-ripper.

The Heron

19671967 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.

Lens

19661966 views2929 comments1212 favs

Night fell and the photographer slept, one hand between Prue's legs.

The Captive

19661966 views1212 comments33 favs

....sees the beginning of a new day through the closed shutters, hears the guard washing up at the sink, feels the beginning of a cry in his throat.

In the Waiting Room

19661966 views1313 comments1111 favs

She sits and waitsOn a chair that is hardWith a neck that hurtsAnd an eyeball that stings.She sitsSo stiffOn a chair that is hardWith a neck that hurtsAnd an eyeball that stings.She sitsAnd the hand on her lapHas a joint that cracksWith a neck that hurtsAnd an eyeball that…

HOUSE OF GHOSTS

19661966 views1212 comments88 favs

The blue Victorian at 1145 White Street shifts in its foundation, creaks, and settles in for the night. The girls are bundled into their beds. My wife, too, has gone to sleep. I’m alone in the kitchen, steeping chamomile tea, coughing phlegm into the wr

Purveyors of Leeches

19661966 views1616 comments1313 favs

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

"Fancy Me"

19661966 views1515 comments33 favs

He stopped the shower and recounted his life, now Kin-less and plain.

Mississippi Burning

19661966 views77 comments33 favs

“There are no inhibitions in here,” the postman shouted, gesturing at the dance floor with his Marlboro Light, the glowing tip aimed at a woman in a taut skirt. Leaning far forward, her hands nearly touching the plywood floor, she planted her feet and beg

Confetti

19651965 views1212 comments66 favs

We go in gently at first, skimming over the first few swells and dropping speed, but then we pitch hard, tail over. The windshield holds. I think of Lily. I think of the baby. And I see my life.

What I wanted in 1981

19651965 views1414 comments99 favs

i stained his hockey sheets right over the red wings

You Never Knew

19651965 views33 comments11 fav

You never knew How to express What you didn't know You felt With your words You picked on You taunted You destroyed Did it help To feel yourself Did it work To disparage Those who were Innocent and young Blameless For living …

Turtle Summer

19651965 views1111 comments77 favs

He was her summer fling, the first cock to crow when the sun rose over her tequila smile.

The River, Once

19651965 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…

Three Flash Sonnets

19641964 views1616 comments1111 favs

Poor souls. Likely they'll be poets.

Little Pi.ec.es

19641964 views1010 comments55 favs

I scare my daughter when she sleeps because she thinks I'm going to kill her.

Birthday Buddy

19641964 views22 comments22 favs

His birthday buddy was like a wife to him: they were born a day apart. This was coordinated, he believe, in the womb. Well, to be more accurate, wombs. She was due two weeks earlier but waited; he two weeks later but cut his womb-time (as the kids call i

Heart Line

19641964 views2424 comments1010 favs

One sunny morning, a big-bellied ball of yellow fur surveyed a yard full of prospective adopters and ran straight to one. She’d been chosen.

Talking about a Friend Over a Cup or Two of Coffee

19641964 views1313 comments1313 favs

Talking about a Friend Over a Cup or Two of Coffee “Their first fight was over school lunches. Free school lunches. She taught Kindergarten in a public special ed center for emotionally disturbed children. The…

FREE

19641964 views1313 comments77 favs

hot, hot

Cast Off Thy Suffering

19641964 views1616 comments44 favs

Somewhere along tomorrow, I will forget I have the right to do this.

ALL THE BASTARDS AND ME

19641964 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.

The New Meow

19631963 views44 comments11 fav

I'm delighted to report that I've come up with my own school of thought. It's called, "Dress Like a Cat Until You Get What You Want."