Most read stories

You Know Who in The Hell You Are Not Playing For (We Are All Performing At Being)

20112011 views1111 comments77 favs

I've been avoidingyour beautiful fact for years in just the past few hours it seemslike it was the scariest plague on earth. Andit worries me becauseit's something so new that Idon't know what to dowith myself.Yes I wouldn't knowwhat to…

Iowa Voters

20102010 views1818 comments1010 favs

I miss my fire from the first three races

Tuesday, Before Noon

20102010 views1515 comments1111 favs

It came up heads so he is going first. He puts on a condom and gets in

The Front Window at Starbucks, NYC

20102010 views77 comments66 favs

His eyes drift over the body of every woman who enters Starbucks, even though he’s old enough to be their father or grandfather, still his eyes are aware of every shape passing by, refusing to let go, and die. Maybe they’re speaking Polish or

The Poem

20102010 views66 comments44 favs

Riding in a pick-up-truck, the radio wailing some 'love em and leave em" country song,

Martyr

20092009 views00 comments11 fav

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

Unsaid

20092009 views2424 comments1111 favs

whistling some blithering tune, trotting around the kitchen in his underwear with his ribs, a long row of meatless tragedies that screamed for something other than the meal he was making.

Actor-Activist

20092009 views00 comments00 favs

A dark-haired, handsome man adjusted the headset he was wearing, leaned toward a microphone, and eyed his host, a curly-haired man with a toothy grin, who sat up straight as he received a cue from his producer.

A List of Ways I Have Failed to Express My Love for You

20092009 views44 comments44 favs

The gaudy belt buckle I got you, which would have been well-received except that you hate gaudy belt buckles.The custom t-shirt I made for you using iron-on felt letters that generously enhanced the shape of your breasts in a way unfit for public display.The wedding…

Falling Out of Bed

20092009 views99 comments88 favs

My wife stood in the doorway and talked to the back of my head. “You really should talk to somebody about this,” she said.

My First Post-9/11 Dream: In Which I Discover Life After Death

20092009 views00 comments00 favs

January 3rd EST/January 2nd PST 2002 It's 1:45 am or 10:45 pm depending on your philosophy about changing your watch when you fly. My plane is scheduled to land in San Francisco soon, but I'm completely disoriented because I've just had my first post-9/11 dream. …

Hag Masses

20082008 views88 comments66 favs

Five poets were beheaded that day, their heads rolled off the scaffold to the dirt and faced skywards; the heads were smiling

4Beers

20082008 views44 comments11 fav

I would ask for your name/if your tongue wasn’t in my mouth.

Five Bucks.

20082008 views00 comments00 favs

“For Chrissake! Just get me one of fucking Tony's half-assed, made in China bullshit, getaway cars. My plate is hot!” I had never hated cars so much before. Not so much the cars, but the sound the cheap ones made when they drove past my house. The…

The Boy from Thuringia

20082008 views22 comments11 fav

“The Boy from Thuringia” is part of a series of stories collectively called The History of Adoption. In it, a middle-aged man sets out rather obsessively to write a comprehensive history of the adopted child. In his attempts to finally begin this im

Halloween Hangover

20072007 views1414 comments1313 favs

Did someone say BOO?

Snatch (XIV)

20072007 views1616 comments99 favs

She's in charge.

Golden

20072007 views66 comments33 favs

No flinch, no stretch, no letting the cook get all golden about the chopping block.

Postcard

20072007 views33 comments11 fav

"Special delivery for a friend?" he asked. "Postcards are a wonderful thing. All people want to do nowadays is send e-mails. But what's better than putting a postcard on the fridge?"

This Thing

20072007 views1414 comments1111 favs

I'm sure someone somewhere must havefelt something like it before. Imean I've never been able tohave this kind of deep longing asif you might want to forget everythingyou know. I always figured that funny stuff onlyhappened to folks in a foreignfilm. Not to some guy…

Cry Wolf

20072007 views2222 comments1010 favs

"You are wolves circling, eyes burning in the dark...."

Physicist in love

20072007 views1313 comments99 favs

He saw symmetry, exquisite geometry, body and built world in harmony.

Ishpeming

20062006 views55 comments55 favs

Ishpeming straddles Lake Superior to Marathon, reaches into the water, pulls out a clump of frozen hotdogs, breaks them apart one by one, rolls them between its fingers, heats them on the thigh of its corduroy pants, and throws them into the sky. Comets t

Velvet

20062006 views1212 comments77 favs

Bloop. Velvet's paws hit the carpet. The new man of the house is on the prowl for food, a walk. Breakfast was Rice-A-Roni; for lunch I'm serving Ring Dings. Perhaps he'd like a bite?

What She Left Unsaid

20062006 views88 comments77 favs

Megan beat up on herself later over the unsaid.

Roadside Daisies

20062006 views22 comments00 favs

The phone rang. Pete wiped his heavy eyes and squinted so he could see. He looked at the clock. It was five o’clock in the morning. He rolled over and tucked his head under his pillow. The phone rang again. He ignored it. It rang again. He picked up.

two dudes talking

20062006 views22 comments11 fav

“What about this shirt?” “I didn't know Gap had an ‘approaching middle age pimp' department.” “So… no?” “Yeah. No.” “Approaching middle age?” “So…” “So?” “Soooooo…”…

All Art Is Betrayal

20062006 views2929 comments1616 favs

a world of probability against plague

How to Remember Important Things

20052005 views1212 comments1111 favs

Save the whales. Save the dolphins. Save the bored housewives. Save my hands, so often cupped over the sorrow in being alive. Save the beautiful made-up cherries of delight I feel everywhere in your presence. Save the sprawling…

Taste

20052005 views66 comments55 favs

I. Sweet Anthill The anthill is in front of my house. It started with a cupcake I dropped on the ground, frosting first. The ants started to congregate, carrying sprinkles and cake crumbs into the deep sidewalk crack. A week…