Recommended stories

At the Crossroads Bar

32823282 views66 comments55 favs

An eye patch waits aslant his passenger seat.

Because

30733073 views88 comments77 favs

Because I'm old and this is the Way I Do Things now...

The Big LARP

14011401 views44 comments22 favs

The ambient sound wheezes on.

Punchlines of a cosmic joke

11531153 views44 comments11 fav

Creating a world in which no one believes . . . killing a world in which no one could believe.

Bowling With Diane Keaton

744744 views44 comments55 favs

Friday night, 80s halcyon,a memory of October bowling.The suburban lanes loudwith kids and kinetic releaseof balls slamming on maple.I have no footwork, no senseof release, fingers sweatyin the grips, resin droppingwith a hollow boomfollowed by derision from more adept…

A Regime With No King

731731 views55 comments44 favs

Blank space / governs the minds of small children

The Wind

30343034 views55 comments55 favs

The wind comes up relentless in the afternoon

Ann Patchett Writes Her New Novel on the Treadmill

171171 views66 comments55 favs

I write my new poem in the gardenBut not like Mary OliverMore like meDirt under my fingernailsReal dirtI can feel the grit of it Something that shouldn't be thereBut is.

O Fortuna

31913191 views1111 comments66 favs

This poem begins my poetry collection. It is about the pain and suffering I experienced when I had an attack of two pulmonary embolisms, one in the right lung, one in the left. This nearly killed me. I lived with the pain in my lungs whenever I took a bre

buttons

325325 views55 comments44 favs

stepped away from meafter leaning on melike I was a wallmy face felt stiffyour fingers stoppedyour body was coldthrough my clothesI touched your buttons

use

25902590 views66 comments44 favs

--------------------------------------------

Brian Epstein's Letter to His Mother

32653265 views1010 comments55 favs

All that loves green produces green.

I Was in Hell, Carmella...

228228 views77 comments33 favs

You have to play the part and be somebody else at all cost, do this from the time you wake up drink your milk first contact, mom I wish I were someone else, tell me, tell me there must be a way through the center of the doughnut hole, direct opposite of a crucifiction.…

Sanctuary

472472 views55 comments55 favs

until the last wisps started their heartless descent admitted by default to this curious flock a sorority I never wanted to join the red poison drips relentless

June 29

30393039 views88 comments44 favs

the only thing that impresses me now is the state of my inebriation

bird

301301 views77 comments44 favs

Ah now, behold this bird. This silly little bird. Holding in his claw his piece of bread. His feathers white, his yellow comb. So proud to show his comb, designed to catch the eye of that other he's so attentive to. Though she indifferent…

Residuals

192192 views33 comments44 favs

My heart raced. I couldn't swallow. Heat rose under my skin, sharp and disorienting. I wanted to disappear—to fold inward, to dissolve—but instead of leaving, I walked toward him.

Mrs. Penfield

839839 views22 comments22 favs

Now her right breast was annoying her.

THE COUNT

126126 views44 comments33 favs

count vb (late 14c) “to enumerate, assign numerals to successively and in order; repeat the numerals in order”; also “to reckon among, include,” from Old French conter “to count, add up,” also “tell a…

The Circle of Life

27122712 views11 comment22 favs

Maybe you could buy a Volunteer,” Carol suggested. Ma huffed. “You know we don't have the money for that. And besides I never liked the idea of Volunteers — taking advantage of the poor like that.”

So Green

254254 views33 comments22 favs

So greenThe road winded its way like a terrier tail but without wagging. Cream white snow and warty as country roads are with their noisy gravel which crackled under my schoolgirl shoes. I can still hear that noise when cars pass in front of my house, the tires…

Soldier's home

177177 views33 comments22 favs

That there are a downstairs, and high voices.

Interview with a Jesus Lizard

791791 views11 comment11 fav

Interviewer: So, you walk on water, right? How is that possible? Jesus Lizard: Well, I only run on water, and upright on my hind legs. Haha, if I tried just walking on water I’d sink quicker than St. Peter!

gospel

7777 views33 comments22 favs

The tinny beer can fell from my desk and exploded over my head

Black and White

590590 views33 comments33 favs

Chris and I have an understanding. We've been playing cops and robbers all morning, running around and stirring up shit.

to You

30463046 views33 comments22 favs

A glance—I dissolved completely.

Wave-Function Collapse Where You'd Least Expect It

7878 views33 comments11 fav

Albert's alarm was on the verge of being dispelled by the cognac when another occurrence rattled him. In one of his vest pockets he located a short note addressed to him by Schrödinger. “—but no, this cannot be!”

Bronwen, Painter of Miccasukee Street

583583 views22 comments22 favs

Walking in the just-thereness of afternoon, Scrubbed out by the Tallahassee sun, Past the same Shocking banana trees that have been The most dramatic occurrences all year Since her move from the north, She thinks we must stop…

Unintended Dispatch

517517 views22 comments11 fav

Other therapists had their own names for it: death by mishap, inadvertent fatal impact, unintended loss of life. These were all very polite ways of describing what happens when one person, mistakenly and without malice, kills another.

The Coming of Doctor Congo (Acts 1 & 2)

548548 views22 comments11 fav

1. The Doctor Sudan, 1936 The trap was sprung! The pair of would-be plunderers hung feet-over-head in a robust net of tightly woven rope, arms and legs entangled, alarm issuing like a Klaxon from…