Recommended stories

Contentment

21782178 views1919 comments1313 favs

On the bed he tickled her until she was crying with laughter. And then the tickles became caresses, the fingers, lips.

Rabusongu

255255 views1717 comments1313 favs

.

Train Whistles In Wintertime

17201720 views1313 comments1313 favs

Train whistles in wintertime made him feel lonely.

Awash

28342834 views1919 comments1111 favs

Nobody has been able to use the washer and dryer for over a month now. Our neighbors have gone laundry crazy. They've become suds-a-holics. They wash everything. If it isn't nailed down, they wash it. Outboard engines, peculiar feelings, dominatrix boots, metaphors,…

Welcome Back

20422042 views1717 comments1313 favs

I lean forward and take her two hands in mine. I look into her eyes. “It’s you and only you,” I say. She starts to cry.

Heart

19351935 views1717 comments1111 favs

She drew her hands out of the chest cavity and looked at the clock. ‘Time of death,’ she said.

Three in a Major Key

14591459 views2424 comments1212 favs

One can watch the grass green/ in response. One can watch the world green/ in response.

Confess another sin

20882088 views1616 comments1313 favs

.

A Brief Conversation With A Man Who Fell Off a Cliff

15341534 views1313 comments1212 favs

I asked him where he hurt and he said everywhere.

The Tease

15491549 views1414 comments1212 favs

She was sick and tired of marriage. She didn't want to be a mother, but now she was.

Halloween Hangover

18741874 views1414 comments1313 favs

Did someone say BOO?

Three Stanzas Ending with a Line from R. Crumb

17171717 views1919 comments1313 favs

The squirrels will not stop peeing on the trees.

Tree Voices (revised)

23962396 views1717 comments1212 favs

Shhhhhhhh...

Phone Call

20102010 views1515 comments77 favs

I could call him. And be done with this waiting but I refused. I wanted him to not forget me first. To bring himself to remember me first before I'd give him the pleasure of my company.

Love Story, a Sequel

18661866 views2121 comments1111 favs

He hid in parks and abandoned apartment houses until his wounds healed. He ate nuts, berries, and seeds. A shy, gentle soul, he watched children playing on the monkey bars, and thought of his lost youth.

Metaviews at Metazen

19921992 views1616 comments1313 favs

This is self-reflection or self-reflexive writing. Candor but not verse. That is what I write: not-verse. On occasion I write a poem though rarely an occasional poem. Instead of calling it non-fiction we could call it non-verse.

Rats

19071907 views2222 comments1111 favs

He tried to call on his break but she didn’t answer. He imagined her on the floor, sobbing, like she’d been the other day. The grey rat would have chewed through a plug-in or some wires and started a fire. She would be ashes, a blackened corpse, reeki

Fear in a Handful of Dust / National Poetry Month 2015 30 Poems

18161816 views2121 comments1212 favs

Fear in a Handful of Dust

When Your Poem Becomes Self Aware

22122212 views1515 comments1313 favs

Where will you hide? Because you know it Will seek you out for answers you might Only be asking for yourself. It Will send many students to stand outside Your apartment and chant your name. It will beg you to perform its birth Again to the…

The Bond Trader Goes Hunting

21272127 views1616 comments1313 favs

The Bond Trader begins his morning with coffee and a hit of LSD.

Bus Ride

23062306 views2222 comments1313 favs

Pretty boy looks over at me and grins, got a smoke?

Chattanooga Afternoon / Let’s Talk About Chattanooga

18021802 views1313 comments1212 favs

Let’s talk about Chattanooga, the cloud / mountains, the monastery bench, drunk / at sunset

Owl Watching

14641464 views1919 comments1010 favs

I attended the burial of our affair when I found her notebook— maybe it should be called her diary—that she had foolishly left on the deck of my beach house where she stayed while I was on that short trip to Chicago. Numb at first, unsure how to proceed, I went…

SNOW JOB

14301430 views1616 comments1313 favs

One sneaker in the middle of the A-Plus Pawn lot...

Uterus

18591859 views1919 comments1111 favs

I describe mine as uterine-based hysteria or Sex Test.

The Little Dog from Outer Space

17771777 views1111 comments88 favs

I looked at her, shook my head and tried to smile. She smiled back, beaming a radiance that pushed away the chill.

The Last Birthday Party

22402240 views1616 comments1313 favs

The boy giggled, splashing his father and howling at the cold.

Polly

24842484 views88 comments66 favs

I taught Polly to turn on a flashlight with his nose. It became his favorite occupation and he'd sit for hours with the light between his paws, watching the things it lit—sometimes jumping up to lick the wall. He'd shine it on our daughter's…

What We Know but Can’t Describe

15031503 views2323 comments1212 favs

We know them just enough/ to recognize them when we find them.

The MacGowans Flee West

19221922 views1212 comments1010 favs

Some believe the Scots were encouraged to emigrate, hired guns as it were, to Ireland to civilize that population. If that's the case, we would see it as another evil English trick. In any case, we MacGowans are Scots Irish and Protestant.