Recommended stories

These Words

11831183 views77 comments66 favs

These words are dripping Delaware and these words are eating your eyes.

The Toy Store

537537 views88 comments33 favs

Figures are a strip tease.

Regarding Bill Yarrow’s Assertion that Herrick Was a Voyeur (Poor Julia: Violated, but Immortal)

17001700 views99 comments77 favs

the observation, at the end, more/ important than the being there—

Tomorrow

955955 views1212 comments66 favs

On the febrile edge

Thanksgiving

13121312 views99 comments88 favs

When our kids were very young, my wife and I believed it was important to give our children traditions that they could grow up with. One such tradition that we shared each Thanksgiving was to walk down by the cliffs along the ocean. We'd all go, our kids…

Harried or Employed

11111111 views1111 comments66 favs

Irony is written sarcasm. Sarcasm is spoken irony: the opposite of what is meant. Catholic irony in fiction seems deeper and more related to theme. Protestant irony starts with P as do other þing.

The Cuervo Gold and Clorox Blues

852852 views77 comments66 favs

I try to keep myself from weeping. We are all actors in a bad dream, that doesn’t go away in the morning

I Don't Understand Poets

12101210 views88 comments66 favs

I haven’t read many of them, these poets that they speak of – Whitman and his Leaves Of Grass, Mary Oliver and her wild life

Who's Chasing You?

13661366 views88 comments77 favs

“Who’s chasing you?”. When the answer is ‘no one’, it’s best to drive away, like you would from a forgettable Oregon town or someone who can’t love you more than they hate themselves.

9/11

13421342 views77 comments77 favs

He laughs and runs just like the other boys even though he doesn’t have a father now, just his mom.

The Winter's Too Warm for Bears to Sleep

12271227 views88 comments77 favs

The winter’s too warm for the bears to sleep, and they get up in the middle of the night with insomnia and wander about the streets in their pajamas, knocking over garbage cans, looking for a midnight snack of some kind. They’re getting kind o

Kazooed

13071307 views88 comments77 favs

"I've been on eight blind dates in three days," she tells me. I can't quite work the math out, but somehow the combination of her wildly undulating eyebrows and harsh vocal tone manage to convince me."I can play the kazoo," I tell her. It's my one saving grace--the thing…

A Short Film About Baseball

17161716 views99 comments66 favs

The throw was the last leg of a triple play.

"A bit less hot Tuesday"

12201220 views77 comments66 favs

The faces of the sun remain unaltered across the seven day forecast. I am sweat-glued to a poem, looking up at the wall-mounted TV in a diner in the Valley

When I Met Ian Curtis

17781778 views99 comments66 favs

Okay, no freaking out. I mean, this isn't a suicide note. This is suicide fiction.

My Uncle's Last Day in Hospice

11841184 views77 comments88 favs

In and out of morphine dreams, he flies through the unfinished roof of Illinois sky. Below, matchbox-sized farm machines. A silo becomes his father's thermos, the silver-capped tower from which he stole sips at ten, his first secret. Back …

Artist's Statement: Stepbrother

11691169 views99 comments77 favs

Mark Reep is that stepbrother you had a thing for, the one who turned you onto Steve Vai, Stoli.

Funhouse

13311331 views99 comments88 favs

beatings and tear gas

The Shopkeeper

11381138 views1212 comments88 favs

His eyes are closed yet restless, as if too many thoughts loop beneath the lids.

snatch 4

13401340 views88 comments88 favs

...fingers...

Reprisal

12801280 views77 comments88 favs

Reprisal The bomb blew away hubris, shocked the arrogant bastards into humiliated silence. None of them had experienced hunger and they'd misjudged its effect. In the lobby of the palace, dirt, plaster, glass shifted, rumbled,…

The Cure for Cancer

11341134 views99 comments77 favs

Thus, more people can drown// and leave their bones

I Draw a Map

17721772 views1212 comments77 favs

I draw your location on my thighs. It takes up both legs; it’s far. I think about showing you but something comes up. The phone rings. I tell her I don’t want to donate to the PBA.

Drought

961961 views88 comments77 favs

Everything is at sixes and sevens.

Word

9999 views1414 comments77 favs

...

Tolstoy

104104 views1010 comments77 favs

At first, it was tedious, those long Russian names, the convoluted story, but recess after recess he stayed in and became enchanted

The neighbor's daughter

19301930 views66 comments88 favs

Noon sun, like a restless master on my back

Kitty Cat

12531253 views99 comments77 favs

Even word dancers need rest.

Intermission

10311031 views77 comments77 favs

It’s so uncomfortable being an Angel in a sack

Robin Eggs

876876 views1010 comments77 favs

"The sheriff's mother-in-law made the smoothest 'shine in the county."