Most recent stories

The Reward of Work is Harder Work

10571057 views1010 comments88 favs

If you stop, you starve// and they just offer what you do/ to others, starved already,/ and schooled, as you, in servitude.

White Treasure

900900 views11 comment11 fav

one man's trash

Mom Dream, from the Family Album

990990 views33 comments33 favs

She was trying to hold something, gathering in … lips blue/ black, saying: “I’m all right.” I remember her telling me, over the phone one time: “It’s a baby rabbit, and he was having a picnic. He was chewing away and chewing away. I had six tomato pla

How Bruce Became a Lover of Key Lime Pie

860860 views33 comments11 fav

He consumed the key lime pie, while wearing a lime-green sports bra.

The Vermeer of Shoes

12141214 views44 comments44 favs

My flash kept going off. The museum officials are strict about such matters. Sans flash! Sans flash, Monsieur!

The Day of the Dust Devils

934934 views22 comments11 fav

The main street has turned into the lowland of dust devils, with the red sun scorching, continuing to serve the living like a giant blood pentacle.It looks like a heathen ritual invoking an ugly looking God with wings or horns, but beneath the whirlwind of rising…

Table Thoughts

13731373 views77 comments88 favs

“You should've let him drown,” she once told me. Doesn't she see that I did? I'll let her drown, too.

Rain Song at Summer’s End

908908 views55 comments33 favs

Soft rain, small rain, steady rain— what the shrubs and tangled young red oak tree need—

Where Does the Foam From the Lattes Go?

935935 views33 comments11 fav

Where does the foam from the lattes go? I'm not being flip--I want to know.

Saturdays with Satan

938938 views44 comments33 favs

You know what's wrong with Hell these days? Do ya? It's too fucking corporate. Too commercial.

Strangers on a Train

11441144 views99 comments55 favs

I'm putting makeup on my face. The woman next to me is reviewing legal briefs.

My Whole Life Story (Again and Again)

11921192 views33 comments33 favs

When John wakes up, the first thing he does is run a bath, because his shower is broken, and while the bath is running he gets his breakfast ready.

Blog 9-15-11

11671167 views66 comments33 favs

...my books have lots of swear words. So there's that.

Male Pattern Invocation

12311231 views99 comments77 favs

in the much more terrorizing display/ of male pattern stupidity// as seen so often on TV/ in the House and at Fox News.

The People

878878 views44 comments44 favs

living in the cross current lawn-care worlds don't give a whit about the so called deeper things. They don't have to scrape and you can't make them go to the river to see a sunset. They've got all their bonafide luxuries in a smart little…

Falling from Grace

961961 views44 comments22 favs

Royce fell from Grace and landed in the fountain surrounding her pedestal. It wasn't the first time Royce had climbed the statue. It was the first time he'd been sober.

Fruit Flies

837837 views33 comments33 favs

Bite an apple and watch them come, God only knows wherefrom.

A Figure Left the Building

13011301 views1616 comments1010 favs

A figure left the building.

Killing Dennis Gauda

11261126 views44 comments33 favs

I killed him. I know you probably don't believe me, but it was an accident. I'll bet everyone in this room knows Dennis Gauda.... or should I say knew him? He was District Governor a while back. He also won quite a few speech contests. Yes... he's competition,…

Dating My Terrorist

12071207 views22 comments11 fav

“Maybe you should consider dating your terrorist,” my dad said to me. “Most terrorists, I think their problem is they can’t get a date. "

STROBE

11511151 views33 comments11 fav

No excerpts for you. Next!

When the Witness Calls

15521552 views1515 comments1111 favs

Here they come, those witnesses.

Three Short Shorts

25012501 views3131 comments3131 favs

When Uncle Dan got sent to the Alzheimer's ward, the ladies licked their lips. Fresh meat.

Friendship

196196 views33 comments22 favs

The routine was this: after getting off from the job at Carpet World in the Bear Run Shopping Center off of I-95, Stephen would wait for Dink to pick him up in his mother's honda. Then they would drive around for a while, usually on the less trafficked ro

The Boy Who Knew Death

26922692 views2323 comments1010 favs

As the sun rose each morning, so did the lonely old man with it; a sad limping figure strolling across the front lawn with a cigar tucked in his mouth, lighting fresh candles here and there, perhaps on an imagined grave of some loved one long lost to the infirmity of time…

In the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene, Wednesday

654654 views00 comments00 favs

In Quiapo Church, Manila, / I crossed the aisle between pews on my knees, // along with old men and women / with desperate wishes, like myself

Mockingbird, Mockingbird

10491049 views33 comments22 favs

I remember when I first came to California, I heard a mockingbird sitting in a tree, calling out in the names of other birds. It was down in L.A. I was staying at my brother's house in San Gabriel and driving in every day to the campus at UCLA to go to s

Please Blow Me.

16891689 views77 comments00 favs

[TURN-ONS: willingness. TURN-OFFS: rejection.]

Égalité in Equal Measures

23732373 views99 comments99 favs

Guillaume and Marcel rolled the headless body into its own wicker basket and were conferring with Lorbert about the disposition of the bodies and their heads, when Marcel noticed a short fellow with a grim sneer and a measuring rod . . .

Two Little Words

13911391 views88 comments55 favs

I'll never be a Republican Megadonor or a Doomed Aviatrix. But I'm okay with that.