Recommended stories

Black Squirrel Poem

26862686 views2020 comments1313 favs

disorderly black squirrels / inhabit upper Michigan

Thumbs Up Jesus

17661766 views2323 comments1212 favs

Good buddy Jesus./ Life coach Jesus. Enthusiastic// and optimistic Jesus, no cross/ or crown of thorns in sight.

404

18411841 views1414 comments99 favs

By the thousands youngsters swarmed into the streets shuffling aimlessly, many mumbling to themselves, heads bowed as their eyes stared fixedly at the plastic devices in their hands.

Garden of Allah

39523952 views55 comments77 favs

(after Joan Didion) (after Charles Dickens)The car is guttering and at first I do not hear him clearly. The antenna is broken and the wipers are loud. he comes in better when I'm off the freeway. “We must forget about material things.” …

Nineteenth Century Noise

15581558 views2121 comments1313 favs

The virtuoso tortures a violin/ in homage to Paganini.

love poem for the homeless man who was killed on wednesday night

17701770 views1515 comments1414 favs

it was your hands—caked with years-old clay & quaking from too much solitude

Rent

10281028 views1717 comments1414 favs

My real parents lived about 200 miles in the other direction from where we came. But long ago I determined they were too real.

September Morning

19461946 views1414 comments1010 favs

They were carried out / over shoulders of running soldiers / naked bodies pass

The Sum Above

19031903 views1515 comments1414 favs

The mandatory is not / your friend

Into the Wild Blue Yonder

25082508 views2222 comments1212 favs

Then it got quiet again, the kind of quiet that fills a car even with the radio on and the highway ticking away and the corn flying past regimented and silk tasseled.

When again?

14181418 views77 comments66 favs

will we begin again?We are a wheelFirst touchfirst kissfirst heatThey fade, disappear, come back again.Spokes in our wheel.When again shall we begin again?I hold you and feel myself spincaught in the whirlwind of thrill -the world, saturated with your scent.We hold each…

Hyde Confronts Jekyll’s Position on a Current Affair

15011501 views2424 comments1313 favs

I would fly drones with hydrochloric acid sprays/ over their squadrons and watch the disfigurement/ begin. I love disfigurement...

Like Water

18821882 views1818 comments1414 favs

I become a lake, a river, a stream, an ocean that will one day be able to move anything, anyone.

A Rich Future

16791679 views1818 comments1414 favs

Also in development,/ the anatomically perfect robot/ pool boy and naughty maid,

Where I Live Now

17931793 views1818 comments1313 favs

The young man is back again, solo,

Letters to Conrad

14721472 views44 comments44 favs

Dear Conrad, If you cannot control your dog’s barking I’ll rig up a loud speaker facing the general direction of your house, and every time your mutt starts howling at the moon, I’ll start playing “It’s a Small World (After All)” at top volume on the p

His Name Is

25502550 views1515 comments1212 favs

Larry lies on top of her, he kisses her, his lips, she thinks, are dry, but she prefers dry to wet because overly wet in the mouth is never a good thing.

Louis Belfast

21322132 views1818 comments1313 favs

"You know, there really is a death of the heart."

All the Broken People

17001700 views1919 comments1414 favs

We all// fall short and fail.

Don't Wash, Don't Tell

19371937 views77 comments66 favs

Butch the Labradoodle sets some necessary boundaries.

Little Meadow Simms

36683668 views1111 comments1010 favs

"I looked at this skinny, little female child, Meadow Simms. It wasn't only that she was small. Meadow Simms didn't look like other children. Her parents were hippies."

...And Nail

25782578 views3030 comments1515 favs

For twenty-eight years, Cochran Baines removed a tooth from the mouth of every dead child that spent time on his table.

The Accidental Arsonist

20142014 views2323 comments1414 favs

Henry yells at her when she lights cigarettes and candles. But this is her small secret ritual, her way of making good with the god she is no longer sure she believes in...

Squog

402402 views2323 comments1313 favs

I choose my words carefully, “Dogs love to chase squirrels, squirrels hate being chased by dogs. It’s a pattern that results in both dogs and squirrels being frustrated.”

Saturday Housekeeping

16301630 views1919 comments1313 favs

but I pretend again I've kept the prairie/ out, have battled back the smoke and dirt

Welcome to the Dark Walls

17361736 views99 comments88 favs

“No one ever notices everything: but sometimes it happens, when no one is noticing everything, everyone misses the same thing in the same moment . . ."

Little Women

16191619 views1414 comments1515 favs

The place is buzzing with little women, all clad in black smocks.

Clarinet

16831683 views2727 comments1313 favs

It’s beautiful to look at and to hold/ though true musicians would be appalled/ by the black plastic

Notel Nobel

19331933 views1414 comments1414 favs

That was before Cohen died. Castro died. Castro Died should be a title by Samuel Beckett. Once I nearly went out to buy a bass clarinet just for the purpose of playing along with Leonard Cohen.

Running Wild in the Neighborhood Today

20082008 views1616 comments1414 favs

The psychiatrist was a man who clearly meant to calm his patients, the students. You could tell by his sweater and his neatly combed, plumy hair and the wire-rim glasses he wore. But he was not good at his job. You could tell this by how bad he was at cal