Most recent stories

Untitled (from Postcards from a Railway Station)

12341234 views44 comments22 favs

As the silence starts gashing I decide it's the moment to take all my thoughts for a walk; To a sound like a million lightbulbs shutting their fuses I resume my view, Across the sun-strobe streets with blind nightlamps; the safflower sun is lopped on its stalk …

The Sunlight of the Mind

13791379 views77 comments55 favs

The nerves are birds that guide us to feeling the loop and lift of reverie.

Not Wanting to Write

18411841 views2121 comments1414 favs

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

Quintet in a Natural Key

12511251 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

11231123 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

17661766 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

11161116 views44 comments22 favs

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

Off the Grid

14401440 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

13531353 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

14691469 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

13451345 views66 comments44 favs

You left paint and blood smeared on the wall.

Gone

14431443 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

14021402 views1515 comments88 favs

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

Locations

18691869 views1313 comments1212 favs

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

Camp Atheism

20192019 views2727 comments1919 favs

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

The Nude Pianist: A Novel: Chapter 35

12961296 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

10301030 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

16101610 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

17061706 views44 comments44 favs

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

Artesian Moon

16991699 views00 comments00 favs

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

Survival

12251225 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

23262326 views99 comments77 favs

I never looked at her face.

It Isn’t Personal. It’s Business

14251425 views1212 comments66 favs

because you pay/ for it to matter to me.

Honey Bee Men

13281328 views66 comments44 favs

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

Sunny Side

13871387 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

15031503 views1212 comments1212 favs

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

Thirteen Ways of Looking at Blackbeard

12961296 views44 comments22 favs

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

Four Songs

278278 views44 comments22 favs

.