Most recent stories

Lottery Ticket

13551355 views44 comments33 favs

  Tony sat down in the hotel room with his back against the wall. He had a handsome face, with three-day stubble growing from it, his pupils very large as if frightened by something, or from deep thought. In his hand, was the winning lottery, Periodically he would get up…

The Pre-Game Show With Al and Chris

785785 views44 comments33 favs

Al:In the contest for the Worst Century Ever, the Twenty-first could be a real contender. Chris:The Twentieth looks unbeatable, sure, what with the War to End All Wars, the Great Depression, Hitler, Spain, the Second World War…Al:…Stalin, and Enola Gay. The genocides alone…

Michael & The Reaper

15081508 views11 comment22 favs

That sound. Bone against bone. Skin across skin. Blood fraying into the unknown dark. He loved that sound.

Need

16601660 views99 comments1010 favs

I knew I needed to visit a beach / made entirely of sharks’ teeth

Ignorance

10551055 views00 comments11 fav

On the street / The protesters stand / Yelling words empty as wind

sunflower 9

17581758 views1515 comments1717 favs

born to be mistreated by beasts in human shapes

The Fat Girl

10581058 views11 comment11 fav

She never leaves her desk, but food appears like magic.

Sometimes everything is depthless.

10381038 views44 comments11 fav

There is some debate about what kind of twins they are. It’s a fissure between aesthetics and science.

Plastic Jesus

20142014 views1313 comments1111 favs

Plastic Jesus wears a crown of thorns. I gesture and say: Does that hurt? He says: What do you mean? so I point at his forehead and his hand goes to it and he says O that

Love Thy Neighbor

13151315 views33 comments22 favs

The summer I turned fourteen I wanted a job so I could start saving for a car. Actually, I had a job, but it wasn't much. Seventy-five cents…

i dream

12221222 views66 comments44 favs

i dream a thousand interconnected pictures. i dream the future. i dream we are together. i dream i love you. i dream i am forgiven. i dream you care. i dream nice dreams. i go to the bank. i deposit my check. i pay the rent. i pet the cat. i…

When Your Poem Becomes Self Aware

19611961 views1515 comments1313 favs

Where will you hide? Because you know it Will seek you out for answers you might Only be asking for yourself. It Will send many students to stand outside Your apartment and chant your name. It will beg you to perform its birth Again to the…

The neighbor's daughter

19131913 views66 comments88 favs

Noon sun, like a restless master on my back

A Bear Story

15801580 views33 comments33 favs

In the spring, my father would dress for class in a bear costume and chase students around campus.

that picture of you

648648 views00 comments00 favs

Oh my God! The question of whether or not we each have a double has been answered. Yours is living in Louisville, KY. It was you...young you. I already knew it, but seeing your picture just slammed it home. Again. I knew I shouldn't have told you

Norm Bladdon, Private G.I.

11031103 views00 comments00 favs

I'd had a long, hard fall from the pinnacle of the profession. I made the mistake of accepting a mouse pad, coffee mug and a fleece pullover with the logo of Upchux, an anti-reflux drug, on the left breast where you'd get heartburn.

A Message from Your Local Superintendent Concerning Sex in Our Public Schools

15171517 views00 comments00 favs

Such behavior will result in no disciplinary action only: 1) if all blinds are drawn; 2) all doors are locked; and 3) loud groaning is masked by appropriate use of the volume control on the classroom’s closed-circuit TV set.

For Carol Novack

36943694 views4141 comments4040 favs

Touching one of these special stones will bring out your own unique song.

Christmas Potluck

10071007 views11 comment11 fav

"I see how little kids might find you creepy," she says between red velvet bites...

The Broken Lily

13261326 views22 comments00 favs

“What was that about?” Keiko asked as she gingerly separated the lily from the wrapping and the baby's breath and examined the flower. Keiko unbound the lily and noticed that the stem seemed strong. The flower no longer needed the support of the wire, and

We All Look So Perfect As We All Fall Down

14831483 views33 comments22 favs

My server wore cat's eye glasses, a Wonderbra that made her breasts like the embryos from Alien wanting to burst their way out of her Hooters t-shirt but couldn't.

HOMELESS OUTSIDE THE CHURCH

17951795 views1010 comments1010 favs

Only the occasional kindness of a stranger,// The curve of his back, a slope rushing past me,// Is luminous, the coin pressed in my hand . . .//// And yes, I beg.//// I open my palm// As Jesus did.//

So Sweet

13631363 views44 comments22 favs

    I met a girl so sweet, So sweet that she could Break your heart   No girl, no one should Be so sweet So sweet that she melts My depression   Increase my anxiety   No one should be so sweet   More like a little girl Than her 25 years   If…

At the Christmas Carol Bar

948948 views66 comments55 favs

I’ll take my Christmas carols neat-

Arcana Magi Pure - c.4

14851485 views00 comments00 favs

The stone floor was cold and the sky above had a purple haze. The setting sun hid beyond the trees outside the crumbled walls. Vines reached over the well as if it grabbed it like hand.

I Saw God in a Wheelchair

15651565 views44 comments22 favs

I saw God sobbing in a wheelchair His legs didn't work and He had no hair I saw God sobbing in a wheelchair Nobody else was there Nobody stopped to stare Nobody seemed to care

Windows

12141214 views00 comments00 favs

The Kid, The Executive, The Doctor, and The Actress.

Self-Portrait of Someone Else (excerpt)

16481648 views77 comments33 favs

Recently I think I became someone else. When the alarm clock rings in the morning, it sounds sharper than usual; getting up, my feet don't seem to quite touch the floor; looking into my bathroom mirror, my face seems to be melting, sliding, my eyes dri

The View From Jeremy's Butt

721721 views00 comments00 favs

“The usual,” he says, casting implicit scorn on Boston’s B–or is it C-list?–scene. “There’s a TV weatherman who’s trying to impress a hot babe at the bar with the ten-day extended forecast.”

The Grand Inn

10661066 views22 comments11 fav

I saw blood. The walls of the bar were completely covered in red shag carpeting. Had I been thrown back in time to the Seventies? It felt as if I had entered Hell itself. No, this was not Hell. This was the Aryan-Brotherhood's version of the movie Shaft. I…