Most recent stories

Insidious

15461546 views22 comments11 fav

Thirty years later – and all the years in between – Alan Walton would remember how insidious it was, the anger that started that night with Quinton Harris, fifteen years old and the undisputed leader of the troop, and spread like a virus to the other boys

Tuna

13221322 views33 comments22 favs

Falling asleep remembering lies that had been built around lies Lies to impress people Lies to make life more convenient Lies, I didn’t even know why I told them.

The Adversary

14361436 views00 comments00 favs

When He had built the Universe, there was no greater joy in putting it together. The angels themselves were perfect constructs of concept and design, embodiment of breathing principle over particle waves. They each had their purpose; each mortar or a supp

Night and the spell that gave me peace

16561656 views00 comments00 favs

When you have lived with pain so long, you grow old and the old man inside of you takes over. That’s just the way it is.

Turning Heads

12281228 views11 comment11 fav

Crows cawed, kvetched.

The Hollow Affronts, Internal

15571557 views00 comments00 favs

And it's a tough thing to become a father, a contradiction; guiding a child to avoid the things that you know about so well.

Tinpot Love

26212621 views3737 comments3131 favs

Under the tree of the one apple, the Tin Man waited for his Tin Woman. He wanted to ask her to become his Tin Wife.

The Cougar

30433043 views1818 comments1616 favs

How freeing to writhe under someone with more muscles than fat, who could keep it up longer than minute, who afterwards stroked my hair and if he noticed the fine silver strands by my ears didn’t mention them. I forget his name...

Rivers of red

11371137 views33 comments11 fav

Proudly we fight, yetWe run, we hideIn the jungle's quietBut how can we hushthe screams of the dead?

Colors

16641664 views00 comments00 favs

Frowning, loosening a purple tie, Tony pushed through the golden revolving doors of a skyscraper. He drifted into the crowded midtown street as if in a daze. He was roused to his senses as his cell phone sent out the melody of his wedding song.

and we can only hope

12141214 views00 comments00 favs

When I was alive with you inside me, I discovered briefly and finally how to fly. Up near your ceiling as I floated around the universe with widening eyes, like a butterfly, like a god, like a bird with golden hair at my neck, like a speckled moth infla

Mothering in Real Time

24042404 views1717 comments1212 favs

"If Hillary can forgive Bill, why can't you forgive Dad?" my seven-year-old son wails one night as I put him to bed.

Squish-Squash

23792379 views22 comments22 favs

Dan leaned back on his haunches and smoked. He was a massive man, not the type to sit like that. But he did. He sat like that, smoking and he said: “I feel like this kid I went to school with. Everybody called him Squish-Squash.” We asked him…

Mercury Unbound - 2

13251325 views88 comments44 favs

An infested, indifferent universe . . .

An Alphabet

12841284 views44 comments22 favs

A daydreams about a woman whose name he’s forgotten next to B, who’s been drunk since afternoon.

The List She Made

13601360 views44 comments22 favs

Later your training began at the fry station. There were regular fries, curly fries, chicken tenders and breasts, and a shit ton of grease.

September Morning

19941994 views1414 comments1010 favs

They were carried out / over shoulders of running soldiers / naked bodies pass

Myrtle Beach Daze

30453045 views44 comments33 favs

He started plucking at my back like it was a banjo. Lucky for me, he was no Earl Scruggs. My virtue was safe with my Earl. We would have been there until the Second Coming, my bra still safely fastened, if I'd have stuck around.

Rude Awakening

19861986 views11 comment00 favs

Vito suddenly found himself wide awake. He was unable to recall having fallen asleep or dreaming or awakening. It seemed he'd just entered bed, yet a glance at the windows told him it was already the middle of the night.

The Man Who Memorized Kubla Khan

11541154 views00 comments00 favs

Weave a circle round him thrice And with bemusement shake your head, For he on cod and beans hath fed And drunk the beer of Paradise.

A Matter of the Heart

14881488 views11 comment11 fav

Charlie's recurring fantasy emerged from its hiding spot as he finished his fourth Old Fashioned. He'd be on his back; she'd be astride him. A strong, assertive young woman with her hands planted on his chest and her hair falling forward over her face.

South 55

18251825 views22 comments22 favs

This is a wife pregnant with spiders

Bringing a New Poet into Your Home

13261326 views66 comments33 favs

You may want to pretend to leave once or twice, peeking in through a window from a darkened room, to see how they interact. Never leave a new poet unattended with the pack until you’ve determined that the new arrival has learned to fit in with the other w

Flying the Potty-Mouthed Skies

11401140 views00 comments00 favs

People think being the best-selling author of the Pokey Little Bunny™ series of children’s books is nothing but cream-filled cupcakes, but they’re wrong.

The Bond Trader Goes Hunting

22082208 views1616 comments1313 favs

The Bond Trader begins his morning with coffee and a hit of LSD.

The Violinist

18781878 views1313 comments1111 favs

Max leads the parade up the hill. He is sawing on his violin, wearing nothing but a raincoat.

Bean Bag Chair

12391239 views44 comments22 favs

Up to the loft we went, shedding clothes all the way. No one is home, but the place smells like the fresh cookies my mom had made before she left. It's dark and my lips hit his…

Demolition Derby

21812181 views1616 comments1414 favs

ornery women / in tall hats, suspender dads, kids deformed with / ribbons

The Year Of Kahoutek

14761476 views22 comments11 fav

My father had a terrific argument with his wife, my stepmother, a flaming harridan with a voice like hydrochloric acid, and insisted on driving me back home to California.

Seal Skin

29232923 views1515 comments66 favs

I had told myself that I would not cry. That I would hold on to my anger so tightly, there would be no space for pity.