Most recent stories

Not Wanting to Write

18151815 views2121 comments1414 favs

I don't want / to write about the body indulged, desires / denied, tortures invented, pleasures innate

Quintet in a Natural Key

12301230 views1010 comments77 favs

I like the cool and dark beneath my rock./ It protects me from the glare and scorch/ of noonday sun and the chilling shadows/ of midnight moon.

A Dream History of Outer Space

11011101 views66 comments66 favs

Look. There's just you and me, that's all that's left. All the rest of them had already given up a long, long time ago. They dropped their precious, colorful dreams like rusted railroad lanterns, like abandoned pumpkins, and littered the Twitching…

The Esso Roadhouse

17341734 views2222 comments1414 favs

The night we crossed the Madres my father stuffed his Stetson full of cash.

My Dog

266266 views33 comments33 favs

.

The Nude Pianist: A Novel: Chapter 36

11011101 views44 comments22 favs

Vicki's scream echoed in Michiko's ear, an unwelcome earworm.

Off the Grid

14231423 views1212 comments88 favs

The slicing is easy. Blade barely touching skin, flesh separating into two clean parts. A breath, and blood fills in the space, an old friend materializing in the shadows. I am redolent with hope and desire. I can't stop thinking of how he excised himself from my…

The Birthday Jump

13331333 views77 comments77 favs

I remember the first & only time I parachuted it was 1964 my 16th birthday a rite of passage if you will from the old man an aerospace engineer & former WWII B24 bomber pilot I practice-jumped from oil barrels taught how to fall back then when the time came…

My 27th Great-Grandparents

14511451 views1515 comments1111 favs

Early Spring, 1075, Northumbria: Judith, too ashamed to speak, too angry to cry, waves her handmaiden away. She wants no food. Wind drives icy rain across the thickness of…

Apex

13311331 views66 comments44 favs

You left paint and blood smeared on the wall.

Gone

14281428 views99 comments66 favs

Erased. Like chalk across my body, a fine powder of forgetfulness, with a few swipes --- all those names and faces, gone. The letters burned.

Delphi and Parlor Games

13731373 views1515 comments88 favs

Ghosts// and the voice of God/ never actually visited you

Locations

18491849 views1313 comments1212 favs

They confess love for Karaoke and metal rock. They have purchased expensive Stratocasters and Zildjians.

Camp Atheism

19991999 views2727 comments1919 favs

We are not alone, not as alone as we think.

The Nude Pianist: A Novel: Chapter 35

12781278 views44 comments22 favs

I visited his loft last week. There were many exciting new pictures. Francesco was your main money earner before, now he will be again.

Cockroaches From Heaven

10131013 views55 comments33 favs

Cockroaches may be falling through the holes in the floorboards of heaven, but we will not be disturbed. We are agents, free and clear, even if a little bit mean. I want to quit worrying about money, but the angels upstairs won’t let me. The

Feline

318318 views44 comments33 favs

.

The Gate Before

15891589 views99 comments88 favs

You were always goingto connect the dots. I was always goingto overfill a bucketwith poems. You wouldeventually drive off wavingyour hand like astar on a spring. I'dshoulder up another notebookfor the walk. Myhand would rather holda pencil. Yours wouldaccept a kiss…

at night, she comes

16861686 views44 comments44 favs

My head was swimming with nicotine, the coldness of the first snow, and unfinished love thoughts.

Artesian Moon

16731673 views00 comments00 favs

If you want job security on this planet, you'd better study art.

Survival

12101210 views66 comments33 favs

When nothing's coming in All I have are fragments Cloudy memories Uncompleted projects Disappointments loom large and threaten to define me I am only as good as what I produce And now I feel empty So how do I shine How do I find the spark that…

Angel's Return

23082308 views99 comments77 favs

I never looked at her face.

It Isn’t Personal. It’s Business

13941394 views1212 comments66 favs

because you pay/ for it to matter to me.

Honey Bee Men

13091309 views66 comments44 favs

"...she's been seeming like she's been dreaming while awake lately..."

Sunny Side

13701370 views44 comments44 favs

I was so used to the silence of late summer afternoons, when I could roll my hoop through the empty, sunlit piazzas without meeting another shadow, that at first I mistook the footsteps for the beat of a metronome spilling through an open window.

Not Creative

14831483 views1212 comments1212 favs

a poem about things exploding/burning down/scattering for miles.

Thirteen Ways of Looking at Blackbeard

12801280 views44 comments22 favs

Across the placid sea/The only moving ship/ Was eyed by Blackbeard

Four Songs

278278 views44 comments22 favs

.

Confessions of an Impersonal Spectator

11011101 views33 comments22 favs

This is why I’ve decided to assign myself a position in life similar to that of Stuart Sutcliffe with the Beatles.

The Nude Pianist: A Novel: Chapter 34

13441344 views55 comments22 favs

—Now that’s a hell-of-a-painting, Frank, he said. Those colors are engaged in warfare. How the hell did you do that?