Most read stories

Leox

19341934 views66 comments22 favs

Whoever came up with the term kismet is an absolute moron. There isn't a single reason, or word, that can describe what exactly my brain has concocted in the face of him. No, kismet isn't what makes it happen. It's my own stupidity..

RETIREMENT

19341934 views2222 comments77 favs

Men have a way of doing that, Lord, why? I always thought retirement means you get to sleep longer. Nope He must arise early, make breakfast, after 40 years of eating mine. Next, he insists on coming with me to the market. When I try to…

Exasperation Management

19331933 views1313 comments1313 favs

We honor fierce, quick, cunning/ thought-in-action types

Greetings from 17-E

19331933 views00 comments00 favs

Remember the glass changing room just off the pool terrace? It's been replaced by a juice bar. Seems fitting, really.

mary jane - snow white super girl

19331933 views00 comments11 fav

holland's hope and hawaii skunk god's one true gift to mankind

GRACE

19331933 views33 comments22 favs

The sand felt warm, the way it usually was on Saturday afternoons in Seaside Heights; face down on the beach under a hot July sun that burned my back and shoulders

Out of Uniform

19331933 views44 comments55 favs

Between the wars, I hung around in an air-conditioned room. It was tiny, and I was shoved to the back, but after living outside on another man's back for months of bullets and bombs, I welcomed the stuffiness. White paint kept close walls from reminding me of the trenches'…

Albert's Mother

19331933 views44 comments22 favs

The stern tone of the chairwoman made him miss his mother, the snap of her accusations, the sting of her belt on the backs of his legs.

Breakfast Dance - a 55 word story

19331933 views1414 comments66 favs

The handsome man at the opposite table swivels his head at the tall cool slim blonde entering the breakfast cafe. The ordinary woman sitting with him adjusts her chair accordingly. She pretends to ignore her husband's distraction, smoothes her hair, licks her…

Hard To Know You Can't Go Back

19331933 views55 comments11 fav

The light against the nylon walls of the tent gets me feeling a little down. The air's wet inside, but it's warm. The whole world outside is creaking and chirping, everything that wakes up with the dawn's first tepid blue light does so and starts making n

Hat, Mouse, Tortoise, Zen

19321932 views1717 comments55 favs

I try to help my pet-mouse by dangling cheese from a piece of string in front of him. Or by making meow sounds. Sometimes, my pet-mouse wins, sometimes the hamster with the great body.

A Dispatch from an Enivironmental Lawyer Who is Trying to Grow a Mustache

19321932 views11 comment11 fav

Angelina Jolie, seducer of Brad Pitt, tattooed mother of rescued orphans, and the unlikely daughter of Jon Voight who broke Billy Bob Thornton's heart, is only two blocks from me, in a travel trailer on Seventh Street, gently rousing herself from sleep.

What She Gave to the Sea

19321932 views1010 comments55 favs

1.There's a young woman in a nightclub seated next to a window out of which she watches the slow descent of snow, illuminated by strategic lights. She imagines herself falling with those flakes. Her friend has left her for the dance floor. The young woman is…

Universal Theory #1: The 3-Step Secret to a Good Life

19321932 views66 comments22 favs

1. Think up problems that don’t exist 2. Realize, suddenly, that they don’t exist 3. Elation

Moles & Scraps

19321932 views1717 comments1212 favs

A starved hunchbacked figure covered in blanket gently steers a one eyed dog along with him. A four legged shadow serving as his longtime companion against the all-consuming vacuum of the universe. A friend for all times.A thin scar runs from his cheekbone to…

Happy Hour

19321932 views1919 comments1818 favs

We were in the car more than anywhere else. A few days driving, then a few days to get back home.

Truth at a Bonsai Booth

19321932 views99 comments55 favs

I envisioned bound feet of ancient Asian women who wore embroidered slippers that hid grotesque disfigurements.

Cherry Stem

19321932 views55 comments55 favs

He moved his rotten breath closer to my mouth, like he wanted to twirl his tongue around just to see how it felt.

Toward a Critique of Everything Existing

19321932 views2121 comments55 favs

You got a lot of people, out there

Backwards

19311931 views55 comments11 fav

One of her favorites was of an old axe asleep on a desert floor. She told people the axe had the western lips of September. That it held the song of the ocean and the dreams of a scarecrow. Some thought she was mad to talk in such a way. Others believed h

Light Shot Water

19311931 views99 comments44 favs

Where I grew up, you did not venture casually into ocean waters.

Confiding in the Airsick Bag

19311931 views33 comments22 favs

In row nine, there was a lady on the window seat. Seeing the potential of space between us, I asked, “Mind if I take this one?” “Not at all” she said as if she hadn't a friend in the world, apart from the poor bastard now sitting in seat 9D.

They Would Judge His Trespasses

19311931 views77 comments22 favs

They waited until the crowd was gone before making their move. Gill kept watch while Warren bypassed the lock. “You sure about this?” Gill whispered. Voices echoed down the hall of the museum.

An Open Letter to my Fictionaut Family

19311931 views1313 comments99 favs

Dear Fictionaut Family,Some of you may recognize my name and remember reading my work, some of you may have joined more recently and be wondering what the hell I'm doing addressing you directly. I began writing on Fictionaut in 2010, during four years as I was fragmenting…

Brot und Käse

19311931 views55 comments33 favs

I hoped I did not look as panicked as I tried not to feel.

The Bird King in Love

19311931 views99 comments77 favs

1The Bird King has fallen in lovewith a radiator.He adoresher pockmarked skin,her neurotic arias,her coldness,her impulsive warmth. 2Tiring of his dalliance with the radiator,the Bird King woos an armchair.She's amply upholsteredand groans dreamilywhen he sits on…

What's Wrong With Stella by Starlight?

19311931 views1111 comments33 favs

Suzie went on to become an anchorwoman in Los Angeles after college. She had tiny bruises on her feet where she’d shoot heroin since she didn’t want tracks to show on her arms, where they’d ruin the effect of a little black cocktail dress

Blind

19311931 views55 comments44 favs

In this coaly no-time/ strewn with fallen stars,/ you are a roaming panther/ and I am a tangle of snakes.

Carlos The Impossible (Part 1)

19311931 views22 comments11 fav

And so the deal was struck. It was arranged that the empresario for the Plaza Mexico would buy the giant bull from Button for Hernando to fight. Come the Fiesta de la Fuerza Irresistible, the Great One would meet the bull that was born of a thunderclap at

April Haiku

19301930 views2020 comments1010 favs

A sardonic moon/ surveys our plight and cackles.