Cherrypicked stories
A New Year for Hans
"A story, Hans!" they shouted. "We are on the edge of our seats with excitement!"
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- 1 comment
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- 1045 reads
If you meet me, have some sympathy 19
A story emerging in 200-word episodes. Our heroes have found their way into the social network, but it's not really what it's cracked up to be ...
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- 10 comments
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- 2628 reads
Darkness
'she fears the darkness and when the light shines; she gathers her body up- a human blind, tries to keep the light alive.'
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- 11 comments
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- 2244 reads
Suck
Autumn colored bumps & brushes were getting stronger We could not hold up under the pressure They glare at the stranger Forcing them away, I smile less
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- 6 comments
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- 1437 reads
Prologue - CULLEN STORY PART 1
He woke to the sound of breaking glass; & his face was wet with tears.
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- 6 comments
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- 1197 reads
Circus Maximus
Buddy Hazelton, chairman of the Brandenburg College philosophy department, quit his job to join the Waverly Brothers Traveling Circus.
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- 16 comments
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- 4394 reads
A Good Man
The weather was a chill of numbing in its creeping from bone to muscle
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- 2 comments
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- 1362 reads
After Making Love...
I defy dawn to break this reverie...
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- 12 comments
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- 2989 reads
Improved Pamela's Dream opening
Updated version of the opening - the dream has changed to one that fits in more with the theme. New bits coming up
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- 1 comment
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- 825 reads
Wish
I read somewhere that a folding a thousand origami cranes will breathe life into a wish, send it whispering into reality, blowing away problems with the breeze of its wingbeats,
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- 5 comments
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- 1176 reads
The prayer hacking scandal
“I don’t understand all this gossip about the prayer hacking scandal. What exactly happened?” “Well, you’ve got God watching over mankind from heaven.” “Nice place heaven.”
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- 10 comments
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- 3194 reads
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
...
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- 15 comments
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- 3178 reads
How to Mummify Your Heart
inspired by botany.
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- 3 comments
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- 1083 reads
Linda - 1
The only furniture in the room I rent is a small, green cot. The room I rent is the smallest of six bedrooms in a large house in a bad part of town.
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- 4 comments
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- 1223 reads
Plastic Lovespoon
I can’t bring myself to mention that the mince pies I bought for her two Christmases ago are still in the fridge behind the three- and-a-half boxes of chocolate
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- 4 comments
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- 922 reads
Blind Woman at Clapham Junction
poem inspired by people-watching
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- 6 comments
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- 1338 reads
Here With Her
I could wake Here Every morning Not this room, Not this drive Or even this town - I could wake Here Every morning Under this sun Next to her This beautiful girl.
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- 10 comments
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- 2303 reads
The folly of wishful thinking
Bother the facts
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- 12 comments
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- 3118 reads
Terrence Oblong has gone stark raving mad
Insertponscyfrenchnamehere isn’t a nun is she?
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- 6 comments
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- 2328 reads
God's Eye
this is a poem about a friend of mine who committed suicide.
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- 6 comments
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- 1536 reads
For Friendship
It’s been a long, strange road A hundred conversations That never happened Words I’ve waited for That are never spoken But I’m glad you finally learned to spit
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- 5 comments
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- 1399 reads
Love is like holding your head to an electric fan, real close.
“To survive heartache you’ve got to stay busy” Well, I’m not busy enough
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- 33 comments
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- 9146 reads
Get Into The Light: Chapter Twelve- If I Gave You Diamonds and Pearls Would You Be a Happy Boy or a Girl?
Lola discovers that Prince is in love with her and she's personally responsible for the deaths of a boat- load of passengers
Bill and the UFO24
strange fish
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- 7 comments
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- 1470 reads
The Machine of Death
I couldn’t believe it.
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- 5 comments
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- 1529 reads
Vientiane: an alternative guide
Laos: "The refuge of the last dreamers, the last loved ones, the last troubadours" MARTHE BASSENNE
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- 2 comments
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- 1836 reads
The Nether World Awaits
Just something I decided I wanted to write about.
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- 23 comments
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- 6072 reads
Alicia at Number Three (I.P.)
Trees vie to give her shade... so soft and light her tread.
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- 16 comments
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- 3725 reads
Eyes or Wrists
We were right about where we came from. The spit & fire, nails & razors, The lashing of bicycle chains behind the knees, Father’s handprint bruised to the side of my face.
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- 2 comments
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- 877 reads
The blackness of plastic bin bags.
...the ubiquitous bin bag...
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- 15 comments
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- 3850 reads
Every Junkie Fears the Miracle
The miracle cure has come. But – What if Jesus himself looked you in the eye? Whether in the beginning, Your own genesis, bathed in sweat Wrapped in heated blankets
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- 8 comments
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- 2215 reads
They Haven't Loved
I can’t stand when People say Mature love Is beyond jealousy And full of trust-- They haven’t loved. I want you To yearn for my Every thought And howl at My silent poems.
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- 11 comments
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- 2227 reads
The bee and the wasp
A bee goes up-to a wasp and gloatingly asks him who had the harder sting. The wasp replied "you do my mate" So the bee laughed and said "you know wasp, you know"
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- 2 comments
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- 4031 reads
Anniversary
You stumble in... through the kitchen door –
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- 20 comments
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- 5130 reads
Damaged Goods
The widow, Lyuba Russova, is damaged goods, but then so are most of the other Russian immigrants at the Meadow Lanes subsidized housing complex.
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- 12 comments
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- 3845 reads
Cicada Songs
Cicada song Do not test yourself here Don’t break yourself against this shore. I have my feet firmly planted, My hands fingering the key – I have journeyed through the first flame
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- 16 comments
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- 3561 reads
Now She is Six...
She's an expert in cat-speak...
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- 26 comments
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- 5567 reads
Nopales for Breakfast
My grandmother is Preparing the Nopales In the kitchen-- It is dawn. As she cuts Away at the Flesh of The ancient Plant, Stripping it Of its thorns, I see Our future, Raza:
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- 26 comments
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- 6481 reads
Enduring Brixton
Some lines on gentrification and the destruction of the last of the old Brixton squats
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- 5 comments
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- 1242 reads
Silence the scream
How do I silence the scream? The long, unbearable scream that lives in my guts, my throat, my head and longs to pour out through my teeth. I feed it with cigarettes, whisky, sunshine and music.
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- 4 comments
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- 1567 reads
Another Carl Andre Dream
Firefly-bright porch light and a palo verde smell, 8:00-9:00. The screen door’s flapping like a wing in the wind; light inside. Maybe it’s the thunderstorm or
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- 616 reads
If you meet me, have some sympathy 18
A story in 200-word episodes. Travelling through cyberspace has its excitements and perils. This is probably neither but, well, it takes all sorts ...
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- 9 comments
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- 2627 reads
Trains
We are sorry to inform you, But the cancellation’s due to, The weather being too hot, And it’s snowing quite a lot, There’s a curry on the track, The driver’s hurt his back,
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- 8 comments
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- 2335 reads
Seals
Smooth and shy, and hard to spy peeping from the water. Watch them gliding, swimming by – agile under water. When they leave the sea they heave – pull with each front flipper,
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- 9 comments
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- 4771 reads
Silence
So I scream to you, in silent bursts of pain you must never hear, leave me something to remind me of the beauty we once shared.
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- 15 comments
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- 2254 reads
I was an idiot at that party
'Someone's drank my beers' a man who seemed kind said
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- 5 comments
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- 1959 reads
The Kiss
the kiss was light like spring air—! only the arc of our lips grazed, touched, fanned, frisked, stippled, skimmed, nipped, nicked, pawed at, shook hands with each other
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- 5 comments
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- 2118 reads
I am an addict
Light falls on your closed eyes closed without rest I am an addict in the body of a sober man no need to think of death now it comes only once one day it will descend
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- 2 comments
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- 895 reads
A far cry from instinct
We are accelerated primates, bones splint by our own speed, our reflexes artillery, even in peace.
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- 2 comments
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- 1013 reads
Boycey2
tears for fears, well not quite.
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- 8 comments
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- 1933 reads
In Rajasthan
I spy you from a long train traversing the dusty plains armed Sikhs fore and aft guard us from dacoits while we admire views of ancient citadels crowning sandstone escarpments
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- 3 comments
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- 1067 reads
All change here
Additional stop at Great Salvation
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- 5 comments
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- 2354 reads
Amber
what's the worst that could happen?
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- 5 comments
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- 1183 reads
Get Into The Light: Chapter Eleven- We'll be Brilliant, Just Remember That
The band performs at the Paradiso with mixed results
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- 2 comments
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- 953 reads
Home For the summer
Home for the Summer Both under my roof for a while a short time tick of a while a bird chip chip trill of a while pink pink, peewit peewit scuffle and murmur Just those few days
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- 4 comments
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- 1982 reads
Perforations in the Reading.
"...recipes to die for..."
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- 8 comments
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- 2000 reads
That Title from a Better Man I Stole (R.L. Stevenson)
There is a company which manufactures elevators called Schindler. I just couldn’t resist it. This piece is inspired by the thought of ‘Schindler’s Lift’.
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- 4 comments
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- 1312 reads
I Thought of Jack Kerouac
I thought of Jack Kerouac Today as I entered The public library Eyes down Rolling Rolling Along the tiled floors Pen warm Tucked between My ear and skull
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- 14 comments
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- 7372 reads