Most recent stories

Notebook (excerpt)

14221422 views66 comments44 favs

I try as much as I can to write but only in as much as you believe―am I successful.

Shuffle

13891389 views11 comment00 favs

Something is clearly wrong with them and we're supposed to socialize them.

Eidetic (from OPEN CITY Magazine Number 16)

20162016 views11 comment11 fav

Who do you think are the true intellectuals? I'm a fan of both Gore Vidal and Harold Bloom although most people can't stand either of them. George Plimpton is interesting...

Never

12521252 views00 comments00 favs

When a woman dies too young, Say at 42, Her bones broken, Her body bruised Beyond recognition Much less repair; When she dies Thrashing In the street Amid rainbow-hued pools Of water and gasoline And blood, Anointed on a bed Of broken glass In a…

Glue

16741674 views11 comment11 fav

There is no cement stronger than the one holding a miserable couple together.

Plath's Plague

25262526 views1111 comments99 favs

Before my mother died, she developed an unhealthy relationship with Sylvia Plath. Under the faded florescent lights of the university they would speak to each other, as I quietly did my homework. I was only seven, but I knew something was the matter. I…

How To Profit As Copper Becomes The New Gold

27062706 views1313 comments1212 favs

We have no more leaders, only rulers who live in another country. I don't ask why my cousin's hand is bandaged, what he's been burning, what's tarped in his truck.

Arcana Magi Divine

18981898 views11 comment00 favs

Amyra pressed her hands on the brick wall and rubbed it. She thought about hanging something on there, but she did not have the tools to make a hole. In fact, the thought of having a hole in the wall would be enough.

On Writing about Velveeta

23432343 views11 comment11 fav

You are fishing in a coffee cup. (Your fishing pole is a record player.)

Aloha

20362036 views1010 comments99 favs

It’s a little known fact that eels are often lost in translation – only the spotted variety, not the striped or the common and certainly not the electric.... I think about that lovely hippie girl and her knowledge of eels, sometimes.

Break Time in the Army Corps of Engineers Mascot Lounge

24742474 views11 comment22 favs

The Army Corps of Engineers spent $92,000 in federal stimulus money on costumes for mascots such as Bobber the Water Safety Dog.

Hurricane Shutters

19611961 views44 comments66 favs

The thing that really gets you about the house is the hurricane shutters. They're up already, even though it's the end of May, because Buck's uncle is back in Rhode Island for the summer and he's prepped the house on Key Largo like Armageddon is coming.

Prairie Yields

20442044 views2222 comments1515 favs

The river’s not/ a river but/ a FEMA map/ of flooding probabilities.

Dirty Aubade

19891989 views77 comments55 favs

We could kiss under the elder tree, even though it was forbidden, even though we were drowned by the noise of the river and nothing we said was right

I’m Not a Needy Film Project

22432243 views33 comments22 favs

Thanks to the popular funding platform Kickstarter, I am finally getting my life in order with the help of generous people like you. Dating in this economy, without a job, is surprisingly expensive.

Breasts and Pickups

1930419304 views00 comments00 favs

Two giant greasy hands were working those breasts hard, squeezing and tugging and pulling. She didn't holler.

Melancholy Wrecks

191191 views00 comments00 favs

In the weeks that followed she told haunted stories...reaching out to touch her reflection and finding it clammy, a summer of unending menstrual thunder, a year she spent somewhere safe with polished metal mirrors.

Phantasmagoria

21382138 views33 comments11 fav

I sit in my chemise like a forgotten rag doll on the stool before my vanity. My body is postured towards nothing in particular, my gaze keeps returning to vacant; it’s far preferable to any fixed sight it could find.

And You--And You--And You

14211421 views22 comments11 fav

“Good to see you, old man,” Greg said. He was like that, an investment banker, a latter-day Tom Buchanan without the polo ponies, self-consciously fusty.

Old Photo, 1948 or so

20112011 views99 comments66 favs

I’m maybe only four. Not smoking cigarettes found in street gutters yet. That will come the next year, when I’m five. Maybe when I’m six, and Andy’s five, my pal from across the street. That’s my tricycle parked behind this pack of kids that look to be ne

The Cool Report

23902390 views1616 comments88 favs

I didn't go to China, however. I would have gone there in debt wearing their clothing. I was afraid to owe even $4,000 (what I still owe) living overseas.

ExsanguiNations

14141414 views88 comments66 favs

leaches fatten-up

Sphynx Clara

14031403 views00 comments00 favs

A brick from the parapet splat down later as I was applying a bitter healing powder, made from the seeds of watermelons, to my raw tongue.

Double or Nothing

15821582 views33 comments44 favs

Wednesdays were humiliating. Third graders had to bring in twenty-five cents for class dues. If you forgot, the teacher would write your name on the board and it would stay there until you settled your debt. My family could afford the weekly quarter; the problem was…

The Hiders

19121912 views22 comments11 fav

The Kharal kept us safe, we knew, kept the colony functional in the oft belabored effort that was living our small, human lives surrounded by death, for in their ring of constant invisible protection, when they did not come, we thrived. It was not as tho

The Tale Of Brave Grinelda

17461746 views11 comment11 fav

Once upon a time in the days of old There lived a poor tailor who- I am told- Did brag that his daughter Spun straw into gold!

68 & Riverside

15301530 views00 comments00 favs

Martin met Siena in the elevator, carrying two brown bags of groceries. She asked him to press the button for floor eight. As they rose, Martin fixed his eyes on the display as it changed numbers: G, 2, 3… and so on.

Life After Death

16011601 views1313 comments88 favs

If opposites attract, that might explain it, Doreen and I. Conjugally blissed through thick and thin. Forty some odd years. Since June of sixty five.

Tsunami

19971997 views77 comments77 favs

Tsunamis are quiet at first: not one big wave but many small injustices, so chaotic all the pressing all the weight of the noise, like a stone holding you under.

Carnival Beach

15231523 views00 comments11 fav

Galloping people, tangled in ballets of hot love, weaving in and out, making a canvas of it.