Cherrypicked stories
The folly of wishful thinking
Bother the facts
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- 12 comments
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- 3479 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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- 2480 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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- 1742 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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- 1549 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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- 10236 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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- 1626 reads
The Machine of Death
I couldn’t believe it.
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- 5 comments
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- 1672 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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- 2022 reads
The Nether World Awaits
Just something I decided I wanted to write about.
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- 23 comments
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- 7516 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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- 4153 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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- 953 reads
The blackness of plastic bin bags.
...the ubiquitous bin bag...
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- 15 comments
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- 4301 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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- 2380 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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- 2482 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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- 4520 reads
Anniversary
You stumble in... through the kitchen door –
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- 20 comments
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- 5788 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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- 4144 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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- 4007 reads
Now She is Six...
She's an expert in cat-speak...
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- 26 comments
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- 6413 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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- 7057 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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- 1435 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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- 1681 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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- 660 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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- 2890 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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- 2527 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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- 5029 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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- 2635 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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- 2137 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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- 2269 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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- 954 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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- 1100 reads
Boycey2
tears for fears, well not quite.
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- 8 comments
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- 2169 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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- 1176 reads
All change here
Additional stop at Great Salvation
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- 5 comments
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- 2523 reads
Amber
what's the worst that could happen?
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- 5 comments
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- 1323 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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- 1015 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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- 2447 reads
Perforations in the Reading.
"...recipes to die for..."
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- 8 comments
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- 2289 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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- 1416 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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- 7983 reads
Your hand in mine
Your hand in mine I can smell your breath from here feel its heat on my ear hair at angles against the blue wallpaper eyes open just enough to savor your smile your hand in mine
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- 6 comments
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- 1553 reads
The 30th of Julia
The 30th of Julia The 30th of Julia is not a sad dissected piece of forensic detritus bagged, tagged, and labelled a toe perhaps or an ear a plane crash remnant or evidence of a bad bad man
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- 3 comments
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- 2082 reads
How To Lose Money And Brain Cells - A Petty Drug Dealers Guide PT 6
Hell’s Kitchen
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- 3 comments
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- 1052 reads
Ode to joy
Stuck in Earl’s Court in a car, in traffic. Nothing moving but crankshafts and fan belts in the blistering heat. I see a man on a doorstep, stained from the day’s toil.
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- 5 comments
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- 1753 reads
White
A short story written about addiction, that I did for my degree. Opinions welcome. :)
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- 3 comments
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- 756 reads
Let's Start Again
Not a comp entry. A 200 word story...of sorts.
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- 22 comments
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- 7107 reads
The borders of sleep (IP)
This story, which I submitted sometime ago (under the title 'The Chasm At The Edge Of My Dreams') but deleted, seems to fit the IP and so I'm resubmitting it under a new title.
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- 7 comments
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- 2516 reads
"Let's Start Again"
A fine-tune of an oldie.
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- 24 comments
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- 8313 reads
The Palace
I wrote this on the 4th of June at 5:30am
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- 4 comments
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- 1295 reads
Let's start again
competition entry
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- 2 comments
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- 623 reads
Three Billy Goats Gruff
Long ago three goats grazed in pastures green and hilly. Their mother kept it simple and named the three goats Billy. Having a name that’s just the same as your brother’s bad enough,
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- 8 comments
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- 5184 reads
When it hits
Going into the depressive state.
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- 8 comments
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- 1803 reads
Let's start again
Competiton entry
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- 3 comments
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- 1303 reads
Say It Isn't So
...or at the very best, help me to forget...
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- 16 comments
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- 3411 reads
Borders of Sleep: Nightmare I.P.
I have come to the borders of sleep And slip in a land that exists Only in my mind I walk in shadow swept valleys Long forgotten memories Hiding in the crevices Come creeping out
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- 7 comments
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- 2148 reads