Most read stories

Backstory

20062006 views1515 comments77 favs

My editor even said so: “Ralph, the Karmann Ghia is the only car for Henry. The only one he could have possibly driven.”

Five Bucks.

20062006 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

20062006 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

Falling Out of Bed

20062006 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.

An Earnest Prayer

20062006 views1111 comments1111 favs

It’s like faith. My battle buddy is out there, I know it, but I can’t see him, nor can I hear him. I just know he’s there, trusting he’ll do what he’s supposed to do, and he’s trusting in me.

4Beers

20052005 views44 comments11 fav

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

On Writing

20052005 views1616 comments77 favs

it's the very words that are the problem

Get Me Gone

20052005 views33 comments33 favs

On a corkboard in the entryway of the Leetonia Shurfine Market a curling handwritten sign said Room for Rent. Kitchen Living Room Laundry Privlages. $65 Weekly.

Ishpeming

20042004 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

Stuck

20042004 views22 comments11 fav

I can't rememberI woke up in the hotel room lying on the double bed staring at the ceiling. The room was painted white with one window, overlooking a brick wall, shut tight so I couldn't open it. The door leading to the outside looked appealing so I got up out…

Taste

20042004 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…

Snatch (XIV)

20042004 views1616 comments99 favs

She's in charge.

Velvet

20042004 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?

Hag Masses

20042004 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

Taxi

20042004 views1616 comments1515 favs

lost in a taxi cab, 4:30 am

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

20042004 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…

All Art Is Betrayal

20042004 views2929 comments1616 favs

a world of probability against plague

Halloween Hangover

20032003 views1414 comments1313 favs

Did someone say BOO?

Slow Train

20032003 views66 comments44 favs

In grief, I'd ride a slow train there with you, / one hand in yours and one hand on the rail,

A Body Divided, 4

20032003 views33 comments00 favs

After surviving the first night in the hospital, I was put into a shared room to save on expenses, and to make room for the deluge of new cases that were coming in, and that was when I made friends with my roommate, Tommy. He was a boy about the sam

Bookends of a Life: I

20032003 views1717 comments77 favs

You have transformed me into an aimless, sleepless wraith...

Roadside Daisies

20032003 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

20032003 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…”…

The Poem

20032003 views66 comments44 favs

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

Cry Wolf

20032003 views2222 comments1010 favs

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

How to Remember Important Things

20022002 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…

The Death of Narrative

20022002 views2323 comments1515 favs

“Why, you tell a story,” one young fellow said. The expression on his face said “How gauche, how passé!”

Unsaid

20022002 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

20022002 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.

Fragile Things

20022002 views1010 comments99 favs

She asks me what she should do, and I say I don't know because I'm no good at handling fragile things. She says, let's talk about you. I say I can't - phone signal, you know. She calls me anyway, twice, then leaves a message saying that she just wanted to