Most read stories

Vernon, Last Seen In Hawaii

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Dear Bess — I go to the First Assembly of God's church. (a Praising Spirit-Filled Fellowship.) It is in Maui. Dr. James Morocco, Senior Pastor. He has been pastoring the church for over twenty years. My, what a big change I am finding in my new l

Root in a Bottle

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He had expected more -- at least his grandfather's classic Packard touring car.

True Fear

20242024 views44 comments22 favs

Flush, a sputter, and the water level rises, slowly. Flush again.

Confiding in the Airsick Bag

20232023 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.

Not Lao-tzu's Magna Carta, xlvi - liv

20232023 views1212 comments99 favs

the Great Way itself is very smooth and straight,/but folks take to the challenge of rough, wild roads.

Doctor, My Eyes

20232023 views33 comments00 favs

...it was just my heart stnging through my eyes...

Alice

20232023 views2323 comments1919 favs

Alice writes three different versions of the letter. The last one is the most tempered, the most like her, but still it is such an unlike-her thing to do. The couple who lives above her has been disrupting her sleep nearly every night for the past three weeks. The woman's…

13 Halloweens

20232023 views22 comments22 favs

1. The Walking Heart Attack Man has two outfits. In the summer he dresses in a short sleeve checkered button down shirt and high waisted Bermuda shorts with sandals. In the winter he wears dark pants and loafers with a gray corduroy coat…

What's It To You

20232023 views77 comments33 favs

Oh I'm melting all right, into a foul vapor rising from a dead volcano, not even able to spit fire, but only cold old frozen rock like dribbles of putrid plasma.

Witness

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The violin hung on the wall after that, a witness.

The Night

20222022 views77 comments44 favs

her parents were gone they sat on the love seat side by side saying nothing the longest time

The Art of Madness

20212021 views77 comments33 favs

He had an addiction to elevating himself to higher levels of potential: some would call this ambition.

American Triptych

20212021 views1010 comments66 favs

It’s always fun and easy/ to punish the poor

The Catcher in the Rye -What Happens Next-

20212021 views11 comment11 fav

I bet if I went back, Old Stradlater would still be combing his gorgeous locks in front of the same goddam mirror.

Night Swim

20212021 views99 comments33 favs

She wrapped her legs around him. His hand barely held the rope and later he could not have said if it happened above or below the water’s surface.

Light Shot Water

20202020 views99 comments44 favs

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

How to Forget

20202020 views44 comments11 fav

Refuse to go to the church service, even though you already missed the funeral. Tell his mother something came up. Call his phone over and over, just to hear his voice, until his mother asks you to stop. Make a recording of his voicemail. Delete it an

Men Respond to Women's Tennis Grunts With Armpit Farts

20202020 views00 comments00 favs

An armpit fart is a simulated sound of flatulence produced by creating a pocket of air between the armpit of a partially raised arm and the hand, then swiftly closing this pocket by bringing the arm close to the torso.

The Last Quiet Morning

20202020 views1313 comments99 favs

Things don’t happen here, life is so boring in this little Irish town.

'Introduction' to LETTING IT ALL HANG OUT

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Was Sligo an unfeeling privacy-violator or an uncannily-feeling empath, privy to the deepest longings of those whose lives he came in contact with? [...] Sligo's grave is as silent as these pages ultimately would be if they were left unread.

Love Story, a Sequel

20202020 views2121 comments1111 favs

He hid in parks and abandoned apartment houses until his wounds healed. He ate nuts, berries, and seeds. A shy, gentle soul, he watched children playing on the monkey bars, and thought of his lost youth.

Death Masking Love

20202020 views44 comments33 favs

She brought the ends of her fingers to her mouth and moistened them in her warm saliva. The whorls of her prints glistened in the harsh light of the room, but it wasn't her own outlines she was interested in raising. His hand lay outstretched in his…

Elegy For the Old Republic

20202020 views33 comments22 favs

You call the shit in this paper news? ‘Dog Accidentally Shoots Man With His Own Gun, Swedish Man Bursts Into Flames on Train Platform, The Truth About Elvis's Hidden Extraterrestrial Daughter.' Seriously? Enough about Elvis already.

Husks

20192019 views22 comments22 favs

She would have moved on to the next guy in the next bar, the one who looked like danger on a stick.

Why the Woodpecker Laughs

20192019 views88 comments77 favs

Once upon a time, before there was Prairie, there was Swamp. Therein lived Salamander and Snake. High above them, in the tops of Cypresses lived Woodpecker.

A Walk

20192019 views77 comments33 favs

I suppose the lazy trees would have a thing or two to say about love

tears, et cetera

20192019 views66 comments66 favs

ghosts are local plagues/of unexpended grief—tears/can't be bodiless.

Uterus

20182018 views1919 comments1111 favs

I describe mine as uterine-based hysteria or Sex Test.

Aerobics 6 p.m.

20182018 views33 comments11 fav

Dizzy but still alive Inside this conversation I ask if you have a sister And if she'll know me If I'm with you.

A Country of Husbands

20182018 views1010 comments77 favs

The first husband was young and lovely. He had a little nose and long fingers he used for things like planting begonias in my clay pot. I did not do flowers. So that was nice.