Most discussed stories

Tollund Man, one/breakfast, zero

959959 views33 comments33 favs

how enthralled might you be, or how much appalled,/plucked from a fresh dream that had just grown serene?

Of a Friend Whose Brother Died Young

776776 views33 comments00 favs

There was no logic to the thing; he’d left to drive his girl around. She had lived and he had died.

MILOSK BLONDYNKI

162162 views33 comments33 favs

Milosk had lived in the hills above Stari Vlah a long time, and while he did not care much for political matters, he knew the men were heroes of the state and deserved what Milosk could provide for them...

Grand Theft Auto (a true story)

11681168 views33 comments22 favs

He took the car out into the middle of Nowhere, Mexico, and drove it at top speed, off-road for a day and a night. I am talking strut-breaking, axle-wrecking, wheel-bending, paint-peeling conditions and balls-to-the-wall, testosterone-drunk driving.

Jasika by the Mountain

741741 views33 comments11 fav

There was the small wooden structure near the base of the mountain. It had weathered many storms and its walls talked about the scars of this. In the hills to the west various cries came out from feral animals that seemed to go linger that autumn. But it had been a…

Mel Brooks Eats Crispy Bacon

9797 views33 comments33 favs

Gorillas with Picassos form charcoal memories Van Gogh leaves his legacy in forgotten fields Astrologers approach the sea of false jealousies And Mel Brooks eats crispy bacon

Dachau July 2010 The Sixty-fifth Anniversary of the Liberation

988988 views33 comments22 favs

Bubbling from the hairline cracks in the glossy pavement of the new Einkaufszentrum in the town of Dachau oozes a mysterious thick red substance. Not blood, the mayor insists despite chemical analyses. And keep it quiet. Just…

DENSITY

933933 views33 comments00 favs

There were more of us before, laying in a puddle cuddling on the floor with heads tucked into the crooks of arms where light scattered their crowns in the morning and no machine exists for me to use trying to find that morning again. Carl could go off the side of the…

I Was a Cat Once

10551055 views33 comments00 favs

This is a 50-word story.

Poetry, Inc.

649649 views33 comments11 fav

It comes to our attention you have what it takes to join our enterprise.

The Houseguest

851851 views33 comments22 favs

"Who's that?" Carl asked about the man standing near the fence. "Says his name is Marty Lopez," Jake replied. "For real?" Carl moved to one side for a better look. "I know. He doesn't look like a Lopez," Jake said.

He Invented Carbon Dating for Seniors, and Couch Potato Chips

835835 views33 comments22 favs

I saw an older writer in a slouched-down Fedora, gray beard and long scraggly gray ponytail, who had empty chairs pulled up all around him, at the Loser Café, maybe for his imaginary friends, or maybe those who were already gone.

The Campus Socialists

871871 views33 comments11 fav

The Campus Socialists Paul and Mary Jo lived in an apartment at the top of a long, dark flight of stairs that were so high, I remember as if it were yesterday thinking, the night she pushed him down the stairs, he would surely be dead by the time h

de gustibus non disputandum

838838 views33 comments00 favs

those darn kids

Edward Ogle the Seventh

937937 views33 comments22 favs

Airwave candy lyrical brandy brass band singer.

The bookshelf

799799 views33 comments33 favs

I grew up in a little red house filled with books. Both of my parents love to read, and the proof piled up in every room. Current books in the bedroom. Books from the last ten to twenty years in the living room and kitchen. Old books from their childhood and college days on…

Voice of the Past

786786 views33 comments00 favs

You are about to experience a voice from the past. Here we go ... jet back to about 1964. I remember you with the same beard (just a different color!) and slightly longer hair. I remember drinking lots of beer and wine in your basement with Shel

Whip Poor Will

10641064 views33 comments22 favs

Save your delirium...

Fuzzy Mollis

10381038 views33 comments11 fav

My small kitchen has barely enough room to turn around in, yet I had the feeling I was being watched. When I experience it again, just seconds later, I realize it was eyes watching, actual eyes, not a camera or machine.

Almost Regrettably Useless Advice

944944 views33 comments33 favs

This world is always at least as strange as it seems, but usually far more strange, so many non-repeatable phenomena . . . .

Pension Plan

794794 views33 comments22 favs

Let's put a cork in this drain.

What is Retirement?

983983 views33 comments44 favs

But what “is” retirement? All of the previous sections in a life are full of detailed descriptions. But “retirement” is somehow left rather vague. One would think that retirement would be the long-awaited GOAL of life. But instead we are left with the

Lazarus argentatus

878878 views33 comments00 favs

They take the blue man out on a stretcher, stiff in cyanotic repose until the paramedics shake him. He sits bolt upright, startled, confused, indignant. ‘Lazarus?' I ask. ‘Argyria. Happens every fucking time he naps on the …

Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water (the update)

11771177 views33 comments11 fav

tough noogies

A Midsummer's Nightmare

14791479 views33 comments22 favs

"So, is this the datgum exit?" "Grumphfr exit fregerrock." (This response means either yes, it is, I told you that ten miles ago, or, no it's not, I told you that ten miles ago, depending if it’s the right exit or not.)

The Sound of Barcelona

15761576 views33 comments22 favs

There’s no obvious difference between two years ago and now but it’s not the moment to contemplate the reason for the racket or why it took so long. Instead, it’s the time to renounce atheism and thank God that the noise has finally finished

A Dutiful Daughter

10251025 views33 comments00 favs

The first indication I had of what I look like came when a man put me back on the rack, remarking that I was too pink. Over the weeks that followed, I gained a few more ideas about my appearance from the comments of people in the shop. My photographic side had been…

Open Face

960960 views33 comments22 favs

All the time I'm eating I can't help but think of the many different tuna melts I have ordered in diners and coffee shops and how each of them disappointed me...

Love in Miniature

810810 views33 comments00 favs

Hole #1 – Loop-de-Loop A piece of metal curved into a loop like a curlicue off-ramp. Jake and I step up to the Golf-O-Rama mat like accidental twins. My ball is half blue and half orange, like a gas station freebie. The old man at the desk said I

Self-possession

10291029 views33 comments22 favs

Self-possession. He had it. In his arctic white t-shirt; blonde haired, broad shouldered, unburdened. “I will make you love me,” he had said, in a bar.