Recommended stories

A Chosen Voice

12301230 views44 comments33 favs

While the shadows of lives that once were still hid away, others who survived tried to stand on their own two feet and walk the distance again and tell what happened and what it was all like.

At the Cafe

15501550 views77 comments77 favs

The light on his face from a lamp, felt hat with a black band scrunched down, the light on his face as though thrown there, the nose creating a strong shadow, with dark, straight eyebrows under the hat, red and orange beard. Leaning forwar

Our Own

15461546 views88 comments66 favs

The world is upon us. The only thing that matters Now is if you are willing to be seen by them. Many moths Will be hidden by simply gathering on the bark Of the one tree, but this will not sustain you if you Do not also have the courage…

Sold 2 Books Though

14461446 views88 comments77 favs

Reading at Menlo Park Senior Center, old people falling asleep leaning to the left in their chairs, all in the same direction.

Republican Presidential Candidates Haiku

16871687 views88 comments77 favs

If they were drowning,

The River

976976 views99 comments55 favs

The sinuous river of your childhood. Do you remember how it slid between your young legs before winding away, making its lively and bubbly sounds. You would have made it light-headed with your games and screams. When you lingered late in the afternoon after school, and you…

Fruit and Vegetable

36963696 views99 comments44 favs

I walk into the fruit and vegetable market and she sees me right away. I've been trying to avoid her and have been successful for more than three weeks. The break-up was not a good one. I still have a scar over my left eye where the glass ashtray hit me.

Assiduity Two

16181618 views1717 comments55 favs

I'm old enough to be her father.

August and After Haiku

12901290 views1212 comments66 favs

The brown grackle chirps/ as she chomps a plump cricket-/ melodious meal.

Words

12631263 views77 comments77 favs

often visit me in my room, so quietly, so suddenly, buzzing my head with wonderful, possible sentences. Sometimes I find they've been there radiating all along, children ready to burst out in a sneaky fit of laughter if I move just slightly…

Running In My Veins

15281528 views77 comments77 favs

They say that inside the veins of every Bohemian lies an entire army of dead alcoholics. I suppose this is true of me too.

Mirko's Morning

15181518 views55 comments55 favs

"Your loss," she cackled, stumbled to the bed in the corner, hummed a tuneless song, and began snoring, too.

Poison

115115 views77 comments77 favs

The High Priest Psychiatrist at Orwellian Industries Medical Center where I used to work loved to hear himself say the following, to my horror, at every staff meeting: "We psychiatrists prescribe the poisons to the patients and the…

Gassed

111111 views2020 comments55 favs

...

The Tall Man’s Secret

19431943 views88 comments55 favs

For the next two hours, Ed goes nonchalantly about his business, buck naked the whole time. He putters around the house, writes e mails, waters plants, vacuums the rug and sweeps the porch. I pretend to ignore his nudity

No New Clothes for the Empress

961961 views88 comments66 favs

Because I was not sure if the poet had said yearn or urine, I zoomed in on her mouth as she commanded the lectern...

Rebekah Just When the Drought Was Ending

18431843 views66 comments66 favs

But the best thing about Rebekah was the way she floated always beneath the scent of woodburn and dusty Middle America,

The Prize

16991699 views1212 comments77 favs

The fish would need a name, but she didn’t know how to tell if it was a boy or a girl. Did fish have penises?

Subsistence Culture

16151615 views1212 comments66 favs

Defy the impulse to grow beyond/ your means and the means of the/ place where you lie at night.

Death At McDonalds, or How I Learned To Love

20632063 views1010 comments44 favs

"I sighed heavily. 'Goddamn it...' I spat under my breath. 'Every motherfucking time..."

Spinneret

11861186 views77 comments77 favs

It's true. I like to walk on the ceiling. But please. Don't hold it against me. The ceiling is cold. Nobody lives there. Just a spider. A curious arachnid. She lets herself down sometimes. If I'm on the bed, trying to sleep, staring at the ceiling, watching her…

Raft and Rag

15721572 views77 comments77 favs

A new philosophy stirs in its surgery.

Hero Song

16621662 views88 comments66 favs

paper cuts, an old film unraveled from its reel, risking exposure.

Phantom Energy

17651765 views1515 comments99 favs

She called it phantom energy. She said it was costing us money every month. A few cents here and there, sure, but it all added up.

Still Single

11471147 views99 comments66 favs

“Yes, Mother, of course I’m still single. No, I haven’t joined the Army. No, I’m not moving back home.”

The Four Seasons

21162116 views2020 comments44 favs

In the hotel lobby, the gold light and warmth and flower arrangements were all lies, but they reminded us of spring. We imagined happiness. We checked in.

Drift

16471647 views88 comments77 favs

I was at Mike's place when the call came. My brother sounded so accusing that I wanted to punch him in the face. But he was way upstate. "Dad died today," he said, as if I could have somehow known or prevented it. It was sudden. A heart attack. He was…

Convalescent

12811281 views1212 comments66 favs

that was one ending

Martini

16041604 views1414 comments66 favs

She drinks a chocolate martini. I fold myself up and slide into her pocket.

Tsunami

18881888 views77 comments77 favs

Tsunamis are quiet at first: not one big wave but many small injustices, so chaotic all the pressing all the weight of the noise, like a stone holding you under.