Most recent stories

It's All in the Interpretation

10681068 views33 comments11 fav

a random sticker that says, Repent Sinner, and a club lineup snaking around the corner and sirens and that urine smell at alley's mouth

The Great San Francisco Poetry Wars, 19

13221322 views77 comments33 favs

His wings were down when he got into the truck. It was a used UPS truck we’d bought from someone in Berkeley, and we painted out the letter “S,” so that it just read “UP.”

The Animal Cracker Incident (Part 2)

12341234 views00 comments00 favs

“I feel like my bones are melting.” Her arms are wrapped around her body tightly, like she’s trying to hold herself together. She’s shaking; I can hear it with every breath she takes.

King of the Mountain

15531553 views66 comments55 favs

Daniel told himself to push. -- push harder than he'd ever pushed himself before. He reminded himself of what his father once told him: don't give in to pain. Be a real man. You can take it.

War Nurses and Lost Fathers - For Memorial Day

20042004 views1717 comments99 favs

I have been mother to a hundred soldiers, holding their hands barely knowing their names

Vacuum City

10551055 views11 comment00 favs

What chaos comes from / insufficiency? What else can calcify dreams?

One Brief Moment

874874 views00 comments00 favs

I have sat aside and entertained the coveted feelings of what was not in my hands. Only briefly, a moment shared of hidden secrets and joy. But of and between us, I cannot say that this moment is a considerable spur-still I desire…

Get a Hold of God, Will You?

10001000 views33 comments00 favs

Get a Hold of God Get a hold of God, will you? I have seen a lot I saw a Great Dane licking the dew off an orange bird of paradise Get a hold of God and tell him that Get a hold of God and give him a piece of my m

Arcana Magi - c.17: Separation

17411741 views11 comment11 fav

The Sentinels held up their weapons at the main door, preparing for a fight. Lori saw the look on the girl’s eyes, something she felt she should not see in them.

Saguaro Poem

12541254 views11 comment00 favs

I thought I would write a poemAbout a saguaro trying to please God The saguaro would spend a hundred yearsGrowing an arm and offering flowers in its fist —God barely notices. The saguaro flowers a crown for God.More arms. God then loses his patience…

Mob

13091309 views1111 comments44 favs

He is leaning back against a pillar watching the dancing; a spectator to joy – both planned and spontaneous – that’s unfolding in bodies fourteen and fifteen years old in front of him.

An Italian Lunch (II)

19721972 views4141 comments1212 favs

Within seconds, I strip her free of all that she wears. Her toes are polished the color of plump pink tulips.

The Animal Cracker Incident (Part 1)

12251225 views00 comments00 favs

Do I feel good about any of that? Not really. But I seem to find myself asking over and over again, why should I care? That's something that's never happened before. But I'd be lying if I didn't say I kind of liked it.

This Old Man

10631063 views22 comments00 favs

“Have I told you this one before?” I can’t think of one he hasn’t told me, but saying so won’t stop him. I fire up the FreeCell game, put the phone on speaker, and pour a tumbler of chardonnay.

The Great San Francisco Poetry Wars, 18

10311031 views00 comments00 favs

We all ran out of the house into the communal garden without fences. There stood Von Rotten with a smoking rifle in his hands, and our mascot Digger lying on his side, limp. We all looked at each other in disbelief.

My Neighbor in the Apartment Across the Hall

11741174 views33 comments11 fav

She's an obese woman whose clothes don't fit: shirts that ride up too high her belly hanging out her pants suctioned to her strangely pegged legs. Her ballooned cheeks are always chapped pink her lips little slivers peeled back over small beige teeth like…

Death Masking Love

15291529 views44 comments33 favs

She brought the ends of her fingers to her mouth and moistened them in her warm saliva. The whorls of her prints glistened in the harsh light of the room, but it wasn't her own outlines she was interested in raising. His hand lay outstretched in his…

The Celebrity

13021302 views99 comments66 favs

"He doesn't have a parish," I said. "He works in a hospital in the East Bay. He told me that if I were in that hospital and I woke up and saw him, I was in big trouble."

Brooklyn Bridge

789789 views11 comment00 favs

I’m walking funny but only comedians notice.

Octopus

10381038 views44 comments00 favs

Sometimes I think there's an octopus in my stomach. In the mornings it stretches and droops its lazy head to one side — It suctions it's tentacles to the walls of my belly and pulls them together forcing me To gag, and vomit what we didn't digest of the…

Domesticity

12811281 views22 comments11 fav

The Marigold gloves are yellow (figures!) and medium, the apron ironed with a touch of starch added...

Protagonist Unbound

15981598 views00 comments00 favs

Protag noted that Gertrud’s brow was knotted with stress and rage, as if she’d been drinking too much coffee and reading the latest translation of Simone de Beauvoir.

Graduation

13931393 views33 comments22 favs

and i'm almost out of cigarettes, and fireworks and sorority girls scream from down the street.

Rock On

15411541 views2525 comments1212 favs

...fancy the idea of tapas, Spain an' all.

The Great San Francisco Poetry Wars, 17

10751075 views55 comments00 favs

So back to Berkeley we went, and started our own commune in a huge rented house on Derby Street where we could tear the fences down in all the neighborhood backyards. We created what we called “The Meadow.”

Car Talk

18511851 views1111 comments77 favs

It had been Tom at the wharf who strode over to greet me, his friend Tom with the small spectacles standing at the bar. “Write it when you get home,” Bella said. I was wearing the same beads.

Nineveh

11011101 views00 comments00 favs

My heart was a puzzle completely incomplete, until I learned of love in your embrace.

Mania

12951295 views44 comments22 favs

To Charles Bukowski "I haven't shat or pissed in seven years," she tells him, negotiating each word around the Marlboro. Because he doesn't know what else to say, Isaiah asks, "Haven't you seen a …

Acute Amusement

787787 views66 comments00 favs

Nostalgia is irrational.

A Bitter And Unseasoned Business Attorney Makes His Case That "Crazy Heart" Is The Perfectly Nasty Ending

13701370 views44 comments11 fav

In closing, Your Honor:After the interview Bad Blake, a/k/a "Otis" takes "Miss" Jane Craddock back to his hotel, ties her up, and gives her a Cleveland Steamer. For reference, please refer to my Brief, Exhibit A, showing a thespian named Ronald Jeremy…