Recommended stories

Dead Dog Rising

17551755 views2121 comments1515 favs

The dog is there, on sorry legs, with sorry claws. He looks toward the man, the bat, and says, You know me, Man. I know you know me.

Midnight Riders

23802380 views3838 comments2020 favs

One dinner party, two couples, three bottles of wine. A moonbeam shone on the balcony. They felt a slight shifting under their chairs and heard a quiet scraping sound, then the apartment slid out from the building and lifted away.

Archer

18141814 views3333 comments2424 favs

No one explained triumph would feel like this.

Let x

27282728 views1212 comments1717 favs

Let x equal the moment just after he tells her he's starting a club for people who know something about computers.It is summer, 1984, and this is their grade school playground. She is idling on a swing over a patch of scuffed earth. He stands just off to the side, one…

The Cake for God

23322332 views2121 comments1818 favs

is all but invisible. Some say this is because it is within a bakery within a bakery within a bakery and thus appears to be everywhere at once.The cake for God has never been eaten except by children who seem to later forget what it tasted like. Some …

insomnia made bearable

17821782 views1616 comments1111 favs

the cheek of you! to dream/ upon my sheets in schoolboy peace/ when here i lie,/ each second spent/ a tranquilized tiger cursed with awareness/ for all the flesh so near its maw.

The Naked Man of Barcelona

1392913929 views1818 comments1111 favs

It is no easy thing getting noticed on Las Ramblas.

quarried

21062106 views1717 comments1414 favs

a chosen cantaloupe a child let loose . . .

Responsible

23292329 views3939 comments2020 favs

This morning, she woke to the banshee: “Individuals must get up early and put in a full day’s work in this economy!”

Eurydice 2.0

16291629 views99 comments1010 favs

Step off, dude. I have no intention of coming back to you.

Orchard

33953395 views2222 comments1414 favs

I used to score girls by taking them on a ride past Frauenstein, up on a hill where you could see the trees, the whole lot of them sparkling white and pink in the breeze.

Poem for the Poet

18741874 views1515 comments1515 favs

for Bill YarrowPoetry is a way of breathingagainst the enemy's chest withoutlosing consciousness again. Itis a ghost dance. Poetry is tobe determined by the plight of bees.Poetry is a waterfall ona mailing list. I've never tasteda finer whiskey than poetry.Poetry is half…

Vanya

21812181 views3030 comments1919 favs

That spring the war still moved north but we did not go to it any longer.

1946, What I wanted..

19291929 views4848 comments2121 favs

I wanted to sit in class in Iowa next to Flannery as she recited that first story that stopped the world with an accent so dense with dogwood we had to strain to collect every word.

Happiness in Love

20752075 views3434 comments2323 favs

The happiness was a tablecloth for a picnic. The happiness was the carpet in the hallway. The happiness was the wall behind the painting. The happiness was the sky behind the cloud. The happiness was the seating in the Saab.

Keisha

19071907 views2929 comments2020 favs

Keisha was the name she gave us. She said she had no father and no last name. We wrote her down as Keisha B. We already had a Keisha A. She was about twelve though she told us fourteen. Her eyes were older than we dared think. We knew her mother had been murdered and that's…

How to Make a Baby

22022202 views3636 comments1717 favs

Eat slowly. Wait. Do not bring reading material. Do not bring headphones. Avoid distractions.

Unleaving

16971697 views1414 comments1212 favs

they'll leave soon for the drive north on the interstate

Flatulence

21042104 views4242 comments1919 favs

He was not supposed to leave handcuffs or a butt plug laying around.

Milk For Free

21002100 views2121 comments1414 favs

The last time she wore fur-lined gloves...

The Understanding

18221822 views3636 comments2121 favs

The young boy picks up a coin that has rolled to his feet. It is warm, too warm considering the cold air streaming around him.

Pie

34743474 views3030 comments1414 favs

Some folks say your hands can tell the story of your life. Well, my hands cain't talk, but they've made so many pies, I bet they could do it themselves if you cut 'em off and gave 'em the right ingredients, I sure do.

You Don't Have to Read This

17971797 views1414 comments1616 favs

I get it. Poetry is an effort. Language is an effort. Words are an effort. Reading words is an effort. A big effort. It takes energy. Attention. Focus. Who has that? Nobody. So truly. I mean it. You don't have to read this. If you're already reading this you can…

pass

18871887 views4545 comments1717 favs

she waits

Headstone III

14941494 views2828 comments2121 favs

My only brother. Frantic flesh clings to bone.

The Freelance Assignment

19011901 views1212 comments1010 favs

You wanted to be a writer. Now you’re a writer.

The Ten Ox-Herding Pictures of Kaku-an

21882188 views1212 comments1111 favs

a snowflake won’t settle on a smoking furnace; the fathers were never restless, it was always the earth that moved.

miranda

33423342 views2828 comments1515 favs

When I was miranda and my mother Rose, ours was a skinless intimacy. miranda in Rose's womb, captured in an essence of love, anger, frustration, fear, the overwhelming stress of Rose's life heavy syrup that kept the bond between spirit and body weak and

2 empty pipes rattling with passion

20962096 views2525 comments2121 favs

i could make swamp boys believe / under dust-sheets stiffened by ice

Bone Density

19291929 views2727 comments2121 favs

Madame Fauve, / with a twisted braid, is dancing.