Most discussed stories

Flaubert Eats Breakfast with His Mom

16881688 views3333 comments2424 favs

your mania for sentences / has dried up your heart

Mocking Bird

19121912 views3333 comments2424 favs

There were always mocking birds around my house.

Dizzy

45584558 views3232 comments2020 favs

It’s never good to get arrested on an empty stomach.

Red Fox Rampant

20972097 views3232 comments1919 favs

Shit, Marcie, I thought you were taking something. I mean you did say you were on the pill. I don’t want no screaming brat. Get rid of it.

Disassembly

16641664 views3232 comments1515 favs

Maybe the thing is over by now. They have gathered up all the pictures and mementos of our dad’s life and hauled them away.

Holy Week

15651565 views3232 comments2020 favs

one day I will take you / to Grenada

Things Left Unsaid

19951995 views3232 comments1414 favs

I knew I was on the wrong bus, but jumping off was a death sentence. I was afraid, but by then I was used to that.

How Chupacabra Broke the Heart of God

32233223 views3232 comments2323 favs

And God said, Let us create a being in our image, after our likeness, for God was alone in the universe.

Peach

24402440 views3232 comments1515 favs

He wanted to walk in, take off his scrubs, and not have to look at pictures of peaches.

The Names of Things

24562456 views3232 comments1515 favs

She's having trouble remembering the names of things.

Couple Busting

18221822 views3232 comments1616 favs

you had to actually cross a damn street, vacate your brain, and say, "you two hellions are going to combust from all this torrid public defilement."

What's Eating William Gass?

46934693 views3232 comments77 favs

Sometime in the 60s a philosophy teacher named William H. Gass was writing a novel. He had it about where he wanted it when someone stole the manuscript from his car.

Muddy Creek

19951995 views3232 comments2121 favs

I went with Dale Stack to drown a cat on a fading summer afternoon.

Gold

35913591 views3232 comments1313 favs

He entered the kitchen, carrying the silver metal scuttle filled with coal. The draught brought in the scent of woodbines. She paused her work, her hands resting inside the bread dough, and breathed deep, having…

The Truth Will Out

17641764 views3232 comments2424 favs

sorry I didn't inform you (missing cap) about my trip to Spain, (comma splice)

Decorum

23572357 views3232 comments2222 favs

So, have your whiskey like a good son.

Stephen King Stephen King

22622262 views3232 comments2020 favs

In the early years, we never got tired of playing Stephen King. We played Stephen King at home and we played Stephen King in restaurants, shopping malls, airports, and hotels. We played Stephen King so much that we could have turned pro.

Unheard

17801780 views3232 comments1818 favs

“Spare change?” he asked the couple heading into the cineplex. They glanced at his brother, saw something was wrong with him, then at him, noting his dirty and disheveled state. They passed without a word, not even a head-shake.

Under Perfect Conditions...

17591759 views3232 comments1616 favs

If when he pulled his lips from mine he didn’t say a word, and if he didn’t try to explain or try to win me with bullshit...

A Caregiver's Homage To The Very Old

35973597 views3232 comments1010 favs

When you take her grocery shopping take a list and make her stick to it as she forgets and duplicates a lot She is also very generous and will insist on buying you something I think she cannot live without fresh flowers or plants that are bl

The Birds

21292129 views3232 comments1919 favs

My wife goes away for a few days to the little town where Hitchcock filmed The Birds. Her sister goes along. When she comes back, I ask her if she had a good time, and she says no.

See Jane

16681668 views3232 comments1111 favs

Jane watched her mother remove her wedding ring with butter.

We Need to Breathe

21772177 views3232 comments1414 favs

She turned and looked at me as if she had just discovered me. A weak smile looped around the edges of her mouth but she didn't mean it. It was as if her brain had relayed a signal to her mouth to smile but the mouth didn't really want to, not really.

Bobby Fischer in Budapest

25452545 views3232 comments1515 favs

Bobby Fischer hates anyone using his name. Movies, books, stories, news articles, games. Kasparov, Spassky, even Deep Blue—he cursed them for ever having thought of his name. Whoever's thinking my name right now—burn in hell!

The Apaches Are Losing Brooklyn

20742074 views3232 comments1010 favs

At the bar, she told me her name was Natasha, but she doesn’t look like one. She’s too thin and flighty for one thing. And all Natashas have a Russian accent and talk of the Motherland as if it were never cold and before it turned to borderlines and j

Almost There

23082308 views3232 comments2323 favs

...children live in the moment like no one else. Which is a good lesson for us all, especially when crossing an ocean. Because out here you are alone with the rhythm of your thoughts and the ghosts of your past.

My Crush on Daniel Ortega

34003400 views3232 comments2626 favs

Time advances. One space between words, two between sentences. When I'm not working, I rehearse the language of newspapers: teez, pica, reefer, jump, hed, sig.

middle of the night

20592059 views3131 comments1515 favs

Then the moon cried real white tears.

Dinner with Sam Rockwell

14881488 views3131 comments1313 favs

“I liked you best in Choke–you were sexy in a lazy, sort of ‘70s way.”

Three Short Shorts

22812281 views3131 comments3131 favs

When Uncle Dan got sent to the Alzheimer's ward, the ladies licked their lips. Fresh meat.