Most recent stories

Haiku, Sort Of

11761176 views66 comments55 favs

“You look so … distinguished. My!” she said.

Family Friend

12811281 views1010 comments99 favs

My student assistant was a comely young woman. A freckle faced blonde. She was from Ohio.

five minutes

981981 views22 comments33 favs

one word prompts

Self Portrait as a Drowned Man

19851985 views66 comments66 favs

The light, oblique and waning, filters through butcher’s paper to reveal a body suspended in death but never decomposing.

gravelortian part 15

978978 views22 comments22 favs

Eager to please the guards, doctors and preachers

Erasure

12831283 views1111 comments99 favs

All else is unmoved/ and relentless in its indifference.

The small of her back

11961196 views44 comments33 favs

.

Hip-Hop Lit: New and Noteworthy

12781278 views44 comments33 favs

Her son was doubtless the biggest wanksta that ever went to Andrew Jackson in the whole crumby history of the school.

The Party

18221822 views33 comments33 favs

Mike poured vermouth over his Campari and ice. “Gotta say, you have the most amazing view up here.” “Thanks. It's great when I'm washing dishes.” “Yeah, and the view in your front room isn't bad either. This cocktail …

Luminous Nights

18421842 views44 comments33 favs

A great doubt had shut out the light inside us, but each of us called for our lover at the end, and she was generous. Carrying us along inside her over vast distances, chilling our soul with sudden terrible flashes of light.

Lullaby for a Dragon Baby (for Josephina TuTu Waring)

12241224 views77 comments33 favs

Lullaby for a dragon baby who breaks the bough with bottled fists escapes the armored cradle stealing swords from terra cotta men to slash the Ming canopy and loose the butterflies that will free Ho Chi Minh from the fire.

Smooth and Crunchy

12331233 views44 comments22 favs

No freebies. You want to read it, you have to read all of it.

Hardware Store Tour

13741374 views1515 comments1010 favs

The Plaza had a chess-board floor, green wood booths, and the lights stayed up. I might be combining a memory of Fitzie's in Binghamton. The Plaza felt like a preppy soda fountain with beer.

Strange Bird

16991699 views1616 comments1313 favs

shortest yet

Kazooed

17281728 views88 comments77 favs

"I've been on eight blind dates in three days," she tells me. I can't quite work the math out, but somehow the combination of her wildly undulating eyebrows and harsh vocal tone manage to convince me."I can play the kazoo," I tell her. It's my one saving grace--the thing…

gravelortian part 14

11161116 views33 comments22 favs

He was an old cat

Bike Gangs Show Sensitive Side With "Baiku"

13241324 views44 comments33 favs

Some guys ride hills up and down, Then stop to terrorize small towns.

A Day in Dusk.

13761376 views77 comments77 favs

And a delicacy in the right regrets.

David

15671567 views1818 comments1616 favs

I keep encouraging him to write stories not poems, but I think he enjoys writing things that don’t fit together. Things that stumble.

The Green Eyed Monster

13361336 views00 comments00 favs

So this is what hate feels like. I glare at her, across the room standing there with him. Tall, blond, slender, perfect complexion, adorable smile, and bright eyes; and him and his lean athletic build, soft square jawline, charming smile, deep blue gree

Kegel Exercise

983983 views99 comments66 favs

1.It was unfair to my time and my small kitchen rug that it took me two days to finish reading Meg Pokrass' “The Big Dipper,” pp. 10-12

The Lioness For Real

12261226 views44 comments22 favs

you happen to me like motorcycle tricks

You Don't Have to Read This

25992599 views1414 comments1616 favs

I get it. Poetry is an effort. Language is an effort. Words are an effort. Reading words is an effort. A big effort. It takes energy. Attention. Focus. Who has that? Nobody. So truly. I mean it. You don't have to read this. If you're already reading this you can…

The Bird, The Snake, and Me

14861486 views99 comments44 favs

The truth about the bird and the snake is this. They are dead. And me? I cannot stop thinking about them.

gravelortian part 13

10071007 views22 comments22 favs

Upon further investigation two soldiers were found

Visitation

11751175 views77 comments77 favs

we can say all we couldn’t say when the ears could hear us

Five Million Yen: Chapter 74: Coda

12671267 views33 comments11 fav

It was the first warm day of a late-arriving spring. Ben was sitting in his divorce lawyer’s office on Maiden Lane in lower Manhattan.

Prawns

18981898 views33 comments33 favs

The white Styrofoam box sits on the prep station. It was delivered a few hours earlier. Half awake, I don a black apron and grab a large cutting board. To keep it from slipping, I put the cutting board on a damp towel laid…

Summer

11681168 views11 comment11 fav

Précis Summer. Far from beautiful Prague, with its buzzing nightlife and pulsating, noisy crowds; away from the stamp, sway and spin, the odour of bodies, beer and cheap perfume; from the opulence and grandiose beauty, we sleep…

Fertile Ground

14661466 views22 comments11 fav

Miriam forced herself to focus on the kitchen door and on putting one foot in front of the other. “Is everything alright?” she heard Ada ask the family. “Of course, everything is fine,” the woman said. “What could be wrong other than the impossible serv