Most recent stories

Dramatic Effect

10221022 views99 comments55 favs

You wanted transcendence, wanted height, danger, the tracks blurred into murky distances behind and in front of you. You slipped, reached for it, starlight shining in your eyes, something you didn't have when I held your hand. We didn't fold the…

Chief Seattle

10601060 views22 comments11 fav

Neighbors trade novels through windows

Move and Pause

954954 views99 comments66 favs

On a Saturday I flew from murky air. My wings grown weak, I stole away from plundered nest, casual stings, and skillful barbs. In family's fold, I perch.

In Passing

10981098 views11 comment11 fav

I'm not hungry now The darkness swallows me as they eat. I'm starving now With a pain I can't defeat.

Brief Requiem for the Twentieth Century

15171517 views1010 comments99 favs

The crumbling meccas/ gnaw/ Each fiscal year’s quota of blood and bone,

Ranger

10391039 views44 comments44 favs

“What. Is. That?” Sid asked, staring at the shaggy ball of fur sitting in the living room. Its tongue hung out of its mouth and its tail beat against the carpet.“This is Ranger,” his mom said. “I don't know what breed he is, but he's a sweetie…

A Session With My Poetry Coach

11151115 views55 comments22 favs

“Please excuse the form letter, but due to the volume of god-awful submissions that we receive, we do not have the time to crush the spirit of each writer personally.”

Eyes Without a Face

11361136 views55 comments66 favs

It's tough when muscle gets in the way of memory. The way pain is the only thing I can remember about certain things. Fifth grade, that's what I think of. I think of pain. Not just abstract pain, not some we'll get to it later adolescent angst or ennui.…

My Life in Prepositions

11271127 views44 comments55 favs

Thanks to prepositions I can be on drugs, get into music, sway under the influence and rock around the clock. I can jump up and down, crawl into a sleeping bag, sleep under the stars, wander into dreams, and wake up feeling down. I can drink from a bottle, sit…

Beehive

10121012 views55 comments55 favs

Like when she said the word 'but', it came out ‘bet’.

Talk.

179179 views1212 comments1212 favs

My eyes filled with tears when it entered my throat

Monday Lunch

11231123 views99 comments66 favs

Earlier that morning a tree in the yard had filled with starlings, and on the way home after lunch, the sky held planes that looked like starlings, floating together.

My Father Said, "I Miss the Game."

11081108 views44 comments44 favs

Of course he misses it,

Breaking News

10201020 views1212 comments1010 favs

We are our own pathogens.

Nightmare

14321432 views1717 comments1515 favs

I loved to visit my grandparents when I was a kid.

The Writing On the Wall Has Been Covered by Graffiti

916916 views44 comments44 favs

The graffiti has grown so large It has covered everything we know and love It has covered the windows, shutting out the light And it’s all about leaving your mark The ones who are living outside your walls Have grown worried about leaving th

Drop Water

12271227 views1919 comments1010 favs

slather consciousness

I Fall in Love Too Fast

10431043 views44 comments22 favs

It was Wednesday, the papers had a food section that day, so the gap-toothed news hawker at the mouth of Winter Street would yell out “Foozection! Foozection!”

To Do Reminders

16341634 views99 comments99 favs

Frisbee dog. Stealth the cat. Read more. Cut toenails. Less wine. Bind the ties. Avoid mirrors. Divide water.

july 23

12941294 views88 comments55 favs

I get that drunk feeling right before it starts to rain. The sky is dark and heavy and the clouds break open with a flash and suddenly there is water running down all of the windows like one million pairs of eyes crying hard. The street is suddenly …

Raft and Rag

12091209 views77 comments77 favs

A new philosophy stirs in its surgery.

some precursors of Mantegna

14121412 views66 comments44 favs

Light. And shade. Line and shape. Colour, form and perspective. Wall, wood, ceiling or canvas. Pigment in eggyolk or linseed oil. Stroked by brush or spread by knife. On small panels or plastered on vast spaces. All these problems to be worked over and solved. Then …

Job Needed

864864 views1010 comments66 favs

I have enjoyed three paid teaching days in Minnesota, since my return in 1996. All three paid days were fielded through S.A.S.E., all three at Patrick Henry. I loved it there. I hope never to become certified to teach.

Relic

13671367 views55 comments44 favs

While space and time opened up for us, the ground accelerated its attempts to devour the astronaut. Grasses grew up around his edges. Seeds propagated in the folds of his suit, tendrils found their way into the mysterious holes for the missing hoses that

The Meat Lady

899899 views55 comments44 favs

After all our morals And ethics of distrust Have been ripped out And discussed There’s still the Meat Lady At the end of the day Standing around in the midst of the crowd Handing out her meat In little morsels on a toothpick Af

Words

955955 views77 comments77 favs

often visit me in my room, so quietly, so suddenly, buzzing my head with wonderful, possible sentences. Sometimes I find they've been there radiating all along, children ready to burst out in a sneaky fit of laughter if I move just slightly…

Return Trip

13581358 views99 comments99 favs

Lou Ann and Bobby drove in from Slidell and had a small, New Orleans wedding with just a one night honeymoon at the Monteleone because the next morning Bobby had to go. It was barely daylight as Lou Ann kissed him goodbye several times and blew him kisses as his cab pulled…

The Good Son

10191019 views55 comments55 favs

They’ve deduced she’s still of sound mind and body. What do they know?

Bats at Twilight

10431043 views55 comments44 favs

“If we had more bats we’d have fewer bugs,” I said. She shrank back into her sweater, and gave me a look, then a shrug.

PERSUASION

10851085 views44 comments33 favs

A story about convincing people to do things they don't want to do, written entirely in dialogue; originally published by CHEAP POP.