Recommended stories

Predator

12361236 views1313 comments1010 favs

Uncounted hens and piglets/ die at my demand. The killing floor// runs red for me. I am/ monstrous to creatures small and great,

The August Heartbreak Suite of Sorrow's Poems

23062306 views1919 comments1414 favs

My heart hurts as I miss you here./This was your intention, I know./ And nor is my reaction unique.

An Episode of Boxes

15131513 views1616 comments1111 favs

In this episode the children in the classroom will all wear boxes over their heads and will search the room with their hands. Their hands will be hands that have been reconnected. Their hands will wear seams as sleeves and curse in red. The hands that…

Victory

15071507 views2727 comments1111 favs

As soon as she left, I sat down at the computer. Booted up. Read my e-mail, then looked at pictures of bare-naked ladies.

Motive

14511451 views1717 comments1313 favs

about killing

Minnows

24982498 views1111 comments1212 favs

I combed the ocean for my minnows while Hattie's giraffes multiplied like spider plants, all yellow and brown on the dry yellow savanna, propelled by their gauche necks, awkward in their bodies, bodies rooted to the feet of the humming planet.

Basics

16351635 views1717 comments1111 favs

When the whistle drops, do not take any guff.

Full Circle

11431143 views1515 comments1313 favs

I staggered away in the storm tears frozen to my cheeks.

The balloon of you

12841284 views1717 comments1313 favs

and the mass exceeds the buoyancy/ and gravity pulls you back,

Mixtape

21832183 views2121 comments1111 favs

12. Paper Wings (Gillian Welch) This one's really depressing. Maybe you shouldn't listen to it so much.

War Nurses and Lost Fathers - For Memorial Day

18021802 views1717 comments99 favs

I have been mother to a hundred soldiers, holding their hands barely knowing their names

Birthday Boy

10951095 views00 comments1212 favs

"I called him a fucking loser and left."

The Winner

12351235 views1111 comments1010 favs

i never much liked Elvis never did then never do now he was no Kris Kristofferson

Darwin at the Zoo

11861186 views1717 comments1313 favs

This year we have no need of spring!

The First Day

11741174 views1919 comments1313 favs

One sentence

The Woman Who Cut Down Her Husband

14551455 views1616 comments1414 favs

The woman carried a wooden log which was her husband into the house.

The Summer Reading Program -- A Librarian Tells All!

18721872 views55 comments44 favs

It's July, which, if you work in a public library, means that the Summer Reading Club is in full swing. The SRC used to be just for kids, to motivate them to read when school wasn't in session. But in recent years many libraries have expanded the program to include…

Chickens

11021102 views1616 comments1414 favs

“Easter’s coming,” my wife says. “Should I dress as a bunny or a chicken?” she asks. She means for the costume party.

Routine

14851485 views2121 comments1212 favs

She could live there forever, in that smokey memory...

Trapeze Artist

556556 views1515 comments1313 favs

Solitude is such an excellent alternative to suicide.

Some Assembly but No Singularity Required

10971097 views1818 comments1414 favs

The phone rings. The oven beeps./ The locomotive whistles and howls.

Klonakilty

10091009 views1414 comments1313 favs

Magdalena White Herrington praised the lucky stars who’d sent her the Klonakilty ghosts.

Testament (complete)

12271227 views1616 comments1313 favs

Their nouns are few and stark./ Ours are numerous and dappled/ or subtly shaded and shadowed/ by circumstance and possibility.

Here Comes the Sun

13061306 views1717 comments1313 favs

She lies on her stomach by the side of the pool staring into her towel. On her back, I can make out a pastel isthmus, surgery's pink art or charlatan's scab, I can't tell which. She is beautiful as rare roast beef is beautiful.

The Tale of Pregnant Tinkerbelle

12171217 views33 comments33 favs

Everyone was shocked when they heard Tinkerbelle was six days gone and had got so heavy she couldn't fly. Who could have done it, everyone asked, but Tinkerbelle wasn't telling. So no one knew. That isn't true. I knew, and in this Declaration I swear I will tell…

Four Brief Poems

855855 views2020 comments1212 favs

The eyes, luminous and large- each an infinite bright blue ocean Wind ruffles feathers My ego and vanity also/ encourage me not to wear a mask. An aberration/ that general circumstances/ will remedy, and soon.

Arrogant Magnolia,

972972 views1616 comments1212 favs

ARROGANT MAGNOLIA, the first to open all, poised ten feet above our fuss. …

Throwing Pencils

16231623 views1414 comments1010 favs

I can never tell if he’s drunk or using some sort of substance or if perhaps his brain just doesn’t fire at the pace that we have come to accept as normal.

Flexeril and Hydrocodone and Want

18171817 views1515 comments1212 favs

Flexeril and Hydrocodon... For my back

Trompe l'oeil

735735 views1818 comments1313 favs

After her grief had subsided, the wife felt immediate relief. / Suddenly she was free to abandon or pursue loneliness