Most discussed stories

Ordinary Boys

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There is no hate in his eyes...

Here She Is

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Indeed, it was quite likely that no one in town had ever played either of these games. The townsfolk were not big fans of word games, though they did enjoy Whist and Canasta.

Hot Lava Carpets

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"The carpet's hot lava," my son cries, pointing at the ground from the sofa."Yeowch!" I say, leaping next to him.We sit together for a moment, silently contemplating our predicament."We need to get downstairs," I tell him. He nods, but does not move. He stares at the hot…

Get Me to the Church on Time

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In my upper room, a sermon/ was playing about sundry.

The Invisible Corpse Candle

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Her eyes stared wide with panic, her teeth chattered intermittently with impressive intensity, and with her ineffectual stabs at the air she completed the portrait of distracted mania.

I Waited Too Long to Remember

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We're in a sedate forest next to a boisterous beach. The sky is sea green above the trees and forest green above Sinepuxent Bay. Chaste squirrels are keeping a lookout for bad-boy gulls. Kids on circus bikes ride out of the woods into their bathing suits. The…

Elephant.

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How could he care less what those below thought, when everything below him was demonstrably beneath him?

You, Cliché

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You might as well be the man on the moon. Once touching your face was quotidian. When I tallied each day's pleasures, you, in this room or that, counted too much for me, I think. I stopped record keeping. I'm …

Speck in the Thrall of Cosmic Forces

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Fear the air and fear the fire./ Fear the land and fear the water./ Creation is out to get you, speck,

Paper Elephants

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Every year people came from as far away as Des Moines and Halifax for Elephant Day. They came to see the elephants.

My Life In Five Paragraphs

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The first punch sent me flying into a Christmas tree. The second put me on the floor on my hands and knees, blood dripping from my nose.

Taxi

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lost in a taxi cab, 4:30 am

Little Shop of Altered Time

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“Time is inalterable. We can only offer an altered perception of time. And what better way to do that than by offering altered timepieces?

The Snow Whale

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“I found out the most amazing thing,” Mike said. “I used to be like everyone else. But I sent away for a DNA test where they trace your ancestry.”

A Skeptic’s Faith

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Sunrise steals

Old Penny

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Nothing about it// is attractive- its color, it’s design,/ it’s market value. I leave it be and watch

Leftover Author's Notes

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#281: If you make it to the end on this one, I'll send you $1,000 in cash and a bag of apples. Your choices are Granny Smith and Fuji. I can also pay you in euros if that helps.

She lets her intentions guide her

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“If 'neighbor' applies to women who covet—'deliriously desire'—husbands from Angers, then one day he'll be your husband's neighbor," I say.

Wattle and Daub

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~ ! ~

There is no such thing as stillness

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.

late winter light

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curled in

On Writing

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it's the very words that are the problem

Mercury Unbound - 5

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As the music concludes, I'm finally in control of my emotions . . .

Glowing Inhibition

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There will always be some who misread the dance

January 1980: Avenue A and St. Mark’s Place, East Village

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In the St. Mark's Bar and Grill romance is a speedy thing, a blurred whir of grope, kiss, connect. The tricky thing is timing: to leave in time for the boozy love of the hour to carry through to full, naked contact. Some succeed of course. Others overstay, hang past the…

Laundry List

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• Don’t confuse the virtues of bananas with the virtues of banana bread

The Little Things (three versions)

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It's the little things that trip us up: a small hole in a level field, an innocuous root in a well-trod path, a disinclined sidewalk...

I Love Us

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I'd kill a gas attendant in Playa Del Mar. You'd read stained romance novels in motel rooms, while I oiled the gun and laughed on the phone, to no one.

Paris in the the Spring

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he thought of her / longingly

Where You Lay Your Dreams

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In all my marriage stories, I am both victim and hero.