Most discussed stories

The Men on the Moon

796796 views11 comment00 favs

It was a gesture on their part, an act with meaning; they didn’t care about country or science; their love was their art, their art was their love.

Can Bone-Munching Zombie Worms Help Fight Childhood Obesity?

16381638 views11 comment11 fav

President Kennedy’s national physical fitness program tried to reverse the incoming tide of obesity, but for many it was too late.

Film Appreciation

13171317 views11 comment11 fav

“Shane, will you turn off the lights?” Jean asked. “Film really is much better with the correct lighting.” “I believe you,” Shane said while he switched off the lights, blanketing the room in complete darkness. The large TV on the…

Dude Fish

11361136 views11 comment11 fav

the wiggly word / floats toward the crowd

Kitty

14931493 views11 comment11 fav

One winter day, walking home from work because his old Honda Civic refused to start out of sheer laziness, Martin found the cat in the alley behind his apartment building. It was terribly thin, with a swollen belly. It twirled around his legs, pleading with big…

Conversation between Young Men

19551955 views11 comment00 favs

It was stubborn early winter, when everyone was cold but went outside anyways, rubbing red fingers and shuffling feet.

First Streetlight

13711371 views11 comment11 fav

What I'm going to do is grab this eight-year-old fellow down the block, and declare him a candidate for this Presidential campaign. I'll be his campaign manager, and our whole message will be based on the First Streetlight platform. It's old school but very…

Butterfly Kisses

14341434 views11 comment00 favs

We are driving towards New Jersey, my husband and I, to pick up our seventeen-year-old daughter who is visiting her father for the weekend. As we drive there, I am suddenly reminded of how much I used to love my ex-husband, particularly when I was sevente

The Star... an excerpt from The Exile of Gaspar

16761676 views11 comment11 fav

The night is very clear and unusually cold. We are so near to the star that its light banishes the darkness that tries futilely to extinguish it. A small village twinkles in the foothills to our east. The cry of a lost sheep cuts the night like a blade

Courtly Love, a tail

18281828 views11 comment00 favs

They're bound to wonder what sort of offspring we'll hatch. We've done the tests, we are cross-fertile.

Zorro

16541654 views11 comment11 fav

Zorro lived in his mother’s basement until he could get back on his feet.

Snapshots

14031403 views11 comment00 favs

“Do you have a job? Are you going back to school,” I asked, you know, because I’m hip like that.

Tuna Sandwiches

11431143 views11 comment11 fav

The tuna fish sandwiches were laid out the way they had always been; they were cut into triangles, with wet paper towels between them. They stayed that way over an hour, untouched, aside from a dimple the size of my cousins finger to test the softness. …

July Night At Greenlake

14901490 views11 comment11 fav

In the vaultwhere no one had daredsince your first stillborn screamsI swept out your deadThe gnawing thingsboneless and dustyand stinking of churchesYou came to me thenand I took youthere in the shadowsunder the tree on the grassnear the reeds by the lakeI dived in your…

On Being Choked

14801480 views11 comment22 favs

I was sitting at my desk at work and couldn't figure out why it felt like a person with a very weak grip was trying to strangle me. Then, I realized I was wearing a scarf.

Resonate

15751575 views11 comment11 fav

In September of that year, our neighbor Wayne had this idea that he could get rich by selling groceries Amway-style, and he booted his 12-year-old boy out of his own bedroom and put up shelves loaded with packages of spaghetti, cans of roast beef, soda po

Opportunity Cost

12171217 views11 comment11 fav

What else could I be doing right now,Besides lying on the couch and staring at the ceiling,Looking for patterns in the colors and lines on the tiles?Looking for you,Immobilized,Succumbed to the siren song you sing.Lured to slavery,Yet you are free,Wild,Unable to be…

Post-Mortem/Petites Morts

952952 views11 comment11 fav

I have things that I should do but I will lie abed with you in homage to our deaths last night.

House on Fire

34003400 views11 comment11 fav

I started the fire. I started the fire in my room. I started the fire in my room because I was cold. I figured something small, in an old oil drum I kept in there, and no one would get hurt.

Old Man's Winter

17531753 views11 comment00 favs

The old man’s face is worn and tired, his nose and cheeks tinted red over his pale black skin from the frosty January winds blustering through town. He looks more than half frozen, which I don’t find surprising.

Excerpt from "Change" where a 1963D Quarter is followed for a hundred years.

15971597 views11 comment22 favs

May 1890 Rifle, COLORADO Only pressure can change one thing into another. In terms of time, the…

Not real words about a not real place

17361736 views11 comment00 favs

I'm going up and down elevators all over the Financial District and I have no office.

Four: Of Moths, Poets, and Streambanks

15221522 views11 comment11 fav

“And what kind of man would prefer all these dusty old books to my physical form? Who would memorize archaic incantations, when he could be whispering in my ear? Why search for the ancient splendors of metaphor, when one could be searching for the ...

Intangible Vectors of Influence (from "Emergency: Three Romances")

17691769 views11 comment00 favs

The young cop says, “Sorry ma’am, you’ll have to wait.” In the strobing red-blue glare he looks like a teenager. Melissa wonders if Tony had looked so young when he started, all those years ago.

My First Sonogram

21102110 views11 comment00 favs

As I was checking out with the receptionist, Dope came barging through the door and told the guy at the front desk that I needed to be booked for this sonogram “right away, like within the next 72 hours.” My hands started to shake and my lower body b

The Unicorns, Part One

16871687 views11 comment11 fav

Later, your father stared, confused, at the empty spot where the wall paint layers ended in the shape of the old machines. He stopped coming in.

Weld (St. Petersburg Blues)

13491349 views11 comment00 favs

There's one graveyard for the part-timers and another for the full-timers. Ours is a little nicer, but we're still all going to hell. Do you remember St. Petersburg? No, you're memory's not that good.

Forbidden Sights

22332233 views11 comment00 favs

I had been crouching in the bushes outside her house for at least two hours when the show started. Some people might call it obsession. Me, I like to call it dedication.

I Like the Celebration

12001200 views11 comment11 fav

But please, don't let me fall into any more smaller pieces than I already have, before I get to kiss someone again and really mean It. I'm pretty sure I've always believed in something more positive than just hate. I've …

Rediscovered

13421342 views11 comment11 fav

Remain in repose, a little longer.