Recommended stories

The Judge's Wife Part 5

12801280 views88 comments55 favs

—Jesus, that bastard has everyone in his pocket.

Surge Of Green

10091009 views55 comments55 favs

Already past the harbinger of yellow crocus

God Works Out of A Home Office

945945 views55 comments55 favs

with binoculars neighbor reads screen text:

Desert

13401340 views77 comments55 favs

On a trail, Richard and I came upon a saguaro cactus that had dried in the shape of a human figure. Its arms were lifted and its back was stooped. I said, “It looks like my mother.”

This Will Hurt

16541654 views88 comments55 favs

He says the medic held a needle/said, “This will hurt,”/and pierced his lung

Credenza

11621162 views88 comments66 favs

Now the house is empty of romance except a potted flowering plant from my mother for Valentine's Day. No man has set foot in my museum since I moved here. One man has set foot. The owner's brother to see about the gasket under the toilet. The Comcast installers, twice. The…

Preliminary

17701770 views1111 comments55 favs

After court, the three of us skipped third period, walked down to the river and huddled under the 6th Street Bridge.

Peppercorns

744744 views1010 comments55 favs

Fertile bodies eye/ the space you occupy,/ impatient for disappearance.

Pitcher

10411041 views77 comments55 favs

the shape only adhering

Do Not Spank the Truth

12461246 views55 comments66 favs

Do not spank the truth Whatever else you do You do not ever Spank the truth If you let the truth be spanked You will be diminished And it will never let you Be finished, instead When you are dead You will dangle in the land Between

Lint Trick

15201520 views88 comments55 favs

Those socks? Nope. I'd look like the joker in the commercial, the creep with the pollen issues and the triangular smile. What a genius. It's the part off-screen I can't forget, the part they left on the editing reel. She's crumbling the crackers into her soup, that dry…

The Blankey

16121612 views66 comments55 favs

All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. All was confusion in the Lubrecht house. Baby Lubrecht had discovered that his favorite blankey, thought by him to have been lost, was in fact being used by his older sister, Lilly Lubrecht.…

Goatee

13791379 views77 comments66 favs

"I'm in a wrestling movie!" you shouted.

Bookstore Reading, Telegraph Ave, Berkeley

13071307 views55 comments55 favs

There’s someone in the audience who is immolating himself Cutting his own leg over and over with a pen knife And groaning: “Oh God, oh God” And all I can think from up at the podium is This guy must absolutely hate these poems I am reading

The Nude Pianist: A Novel: Chapter 5

14981498 views88 comments55 favs

When the cab dropped Frank at his address at seven that evening, he noticed the lights were on in Michiko’s apartment.

Even in the Same Room

10281028 views66 comments44 favs

as you are, there's a big floating arm that separates both of us from each other. Widening, like a river, it touches us together often, but still keeps us drifting apart. The banks of your new life have different weeds and flowers…

John Ruskin doing a Swan Dive

15241524 views66 comments55 favs

She used her right breast. Lifted it to her chin, aimed at the can, and shoved it down as hard as she could.

The Dream Shop

14731473 views55 comments55 favs

From nine at night until five in the morningthe mannequins staff the Dream Shop.Customers sleepwalk in and murmur their enquiries.Some of the patrons are very demanding.They queue outside before opening…

An Observant Man

21372137 views66 comments55 favs

How much more attuned he was when surrounded by forest, consigning meaning to each tiny sound.

Important Questions

128128 views77 comments55 favs

I listen to my psychotherapy patients complain about their lives all day. Bitterly, hopelessly. I listen for little openings that offer possibilities for changing perspective and feeling weller. But my five minutes between each session, whether it includes a bathroom or…

Aesthetic Strategy

11601160 views77 comments55 favs

it acquires a fine translucence

The Forefinger of Lenin

17501750 views1010 comments44 favs

Who puts Vaseline on the forefinger of Lenin? I want to know

Goody Two-Shoes

12231223 views66 comments55 favs

She locked herself in the bathroom on our wedding night. That was my first clue that I had made a mistake.

21st Century Living

14241424 views55 comments55 favs

there should be a word for it.

Truman Compote

17241724 views77 comments55 favs

When it rains, I can really think.

Coffee

23162316 views99 comments44 favs

I hate walking into restaurants and cafes by myself to meet someone. I always feel awkward, as if no one will claim me. I'm hanging on the threshold now for an agonizing few moments scanning the room until I see my friend.“Hi!” she says, waving her cup at…

Prime cut

16251625 views55 comments44 favs

1I don't like it when they leave the heads on.I mean it's not nice, is it.The idyllic order of the abattoir.Mary is on stunning and bleeding.She prefers evisceration.Still, the work's ok and it's her day off tomorrow.Deft hands perform their daily ballet.Mary had a…

John Bonham

15321532 views66 comments55 favs

There is an empty space, between every note in rock 'n' roll, where they have buried John Bonham,

The Yin and the Yang

16291629 views1010 comments44 favs

Penis vs Uterus

Adam, Eve and the Indie Author

15361536 views77 comments55 favs

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God. What on Earth does that mean? What the hell? Earth, hell, heaven, they were good concepts. He took a rib out of Adam and began to write with it.