Most discussed stories

Mother of the Earth

10611061 views22 comments00 favs

On Terry’s eighteenth birthday (the summer of 1966, the same year you graduated from high school, and the year I broke up with Sharon) I took Terry out to Fox River on my dad's ski boat, and opened up my robe and showed her all there was to show of myse

Center of the Universe

16301630 views22 comments11 fav

.38 In the Glove Compartment

819819 views22 comments00 favs

I accidentally opened the glove compartment and stumbled upon his snub-nose .38 caliber. He saw me looking at it and smirked. “Protection,” he said, picking his teeth with a wooden toothpick after lunch. “In my line of business, you hafta have it.” “Wh

Saul Lies, 33

12351235 views22 comments00 favs

Saul Lies, 33 and uneager to lift his head off of the hair grease stained pillowcase that absorbed his mental anguish most nights, stayed in bed past noon

He Pressed 9. I Was 10.

11671167 views22 comments22 favs

"Excuse me. I believe you have a little something falling from your right nostril there," he said, pointing with his pinky.

Cubicle Genie*

33003300 views22 comments11 fav

At the TV station across the street two sports team mascots are dancing and miming for the cameras. There are some young men wearing baseball caps at the viewing window simulating sex acts for the cameras.

The Puppet Maker

17221722 views22 comments00 favs

My sister Janis called me from Berlin and said to turn on the news. You could see the thick flurries of snow that were falling there and the flat feathers of peoples' breaths issuing from their mouths as they took turns swinging pick-axes, standing on top

Keep Breathing

12221222 views22 comments11 fav

While you sleep, I wait for you to die.

Speaking of Mexico

881881 views22 comments11 fav

Well, I can tell you this much. The balance of my illusions about the underlying nature of mankind grew into grave doubts the day my brother was shot dead by a revenge-seeking Lebanese investor during a business failure bankruptcy in Southern California

Trapped

11621162 views22 comments00 favs

They were overweight, diabetic, and trapped in a cellphone dead zone.

Science Homework

22412241 views22 comments22 favs

The difficulty of disabled parenting was predictable, but nothing could prepare me for having to say goodbye to my wife again on problem #7.

Trope City

11471147 views22 comments11 fav

If the pen travels over a sheet of paper, it is not long before a metaphor appears. A fast, beautiful metaphor like friendship, or deformity. Think of the pen as a penis and the ink as semen. I just sit and laugh. Time impregnates an opportunity and a lon

Blocked - A Facebook Tale

27892789 views22 comments00 favs

In the LOL playground environment of Facebook, one man's world is turned upside down when a new female friend suddenly blocks him from any further communication.From Chap.1: "I kept thinking there was something familiar about you, and now I remember."

No Dogs! No Dogs Allowed!

12651265 views22 comments22 favs

the impression I had gotten of him was that he was fifty percent yuppie and fifty percent drug dealer from Marin.

Kintsukuroi

14551455 views22 comments22 favs

The scared woman, she hides her flaws from the world.

Liebe Grüße

21612161 views22 comments00 favs

Left, I see parkland and cyclists and sun. Right: picnic blankets, naked men and lunchtime assignations.

dancing in the theater of the soul

10191019 views22 comments11 fav

It’s the audacious testicle dancing in its theater, isn’t it? Carrying the legendary names. The bad blood, the jealousy the heart retains, living again under its skin, rarely enlivened by one of its own. There was enough angel in you that we would g

Collectors

10461046 views22 comments00 favs

Touch the wrong thing and everything will crash down around you. This was the fatherly advice Warren bestowed upon me as we entered his Miami apartment.

Nearly A Woman

119119 views22 comments11 fav

On my way to the creative writing class the next week, I decided that, despite the canonical immortalization of ‘Virginia’ the nineteen-year-old nymph, I didn’t like his story. What was I going to say? Did he expect me to fuck him now? My hands grew sweat

The Year in Blogging: More Than Just Sonny Tufts

10131013 views22 comments11 fav

1,919 followers in 105 countries come to this site every day looking for breaking news on the number of white kittens promoters are required to provide Mariah Carey at each concert.

Disappear Everywhere

13311331 views22 comments22 favs

heroes and monsters

Sometimes the bear eats you...

17761776 views22 comments11 fav

...something darkly malevolent looming above him...

Panthera pardus

25312531 views22 comments00 favs

A cruel panther gets its prey.

Lakota

18511851 views22 comments00 favs

The cabin has windows all around, like ribbon tying a birthday present.

The Boy from Thuringia

20632063 views22 comments11 fav

“The Boy from Thuringia” is part of a series of stories collectively called The History of Adoption. In it, a middle-aged man sets out rather obsessively to write a comprehensive history of the adopted child. In his attempts to finally begin this im

wine, women, song

900900 views22 comments11 fav

Details may be missing from our lives, but you can fill them in any time you want. Fill up the cup again with me. Come in and be warm, anytime you want. Wine, women, song, whatever. I sat on the curb once, in Mexico, saying, “Give me your salads, your o

Bible Stories for Atheist Babysitters

14101410 views22 comments11 fav

What the five-year-old I baby sit for wanted to do yesterday was torture his Barbies. “Why would you want to do that?” I asked.“Because we're bad guys!” said Hanina. “Can't we be good guys?”“Not today. Today we're bad…

Marion, Texas

19951995 views22 comments22 favs

Marion had decided to stop whenever she came upon Amarillo. It was close to two a.m. when she pulled into the motel parking lot. Momma, read the nametag on the woman at reception. Her face was illuminated by a TV. Her hair curlers were illuminated by the lone desk lamp…

#1

11861186 views22 comments22 favs

“I am the Successor of Peter!” he said, supporting himself on the shepherd’s staff topped with a crucifix: “And you are trespassing on Holy Ground.” Baal said: “No ground is Holy for me.

Clean Out Your Desk, Naps. You're Being Replaced.

39763976 views22 comments11 fav

Sunday mornings my mother got up early—and dragged me kicking and screaming out of bed and into my nicest jeans and sweater. I have still never thanked her. (I’m borrowing, of course, but that doesn’t make it any less true.)