Most read stories

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

19771977 views1212 comments99 favs

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

Tatters

19771977 views99 comments88 favs

They sat on the couch, and he tried to unbutton her buttons, but she fended him off.

Traveling Lightheaded

19771977 views44 comments11 fav

He lit my cigarette even though he didn't want me to smoke. Buying me drinks all night, he didn't complain, but he thought I drank too much.

Moles & Scraps

19771977 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…

The Mitzvah

19761976 views1717 comments1111 favs

There were only two students in the sculpture class: an 86 year-old Jewish woman and myself.

Life Story

19761976 views99 comments77 favs

A man lives with a woman he loves enough to live with, but not enough to marry and not enough for kids. He knows he could love others enough to marry, enough for kids, but he's not the kind of man to find those women when he's with this woman.Sometimes “love”…

The Crescent Caretaker

19761976 views22 comments11 fav

Enter Tipitina’s – the rotation hole where electric, shoeless uncles allocate their copper goulashes to catch white dripwater.

Eighty-eight

19761976 views77 comments66 favs

She realised that things you can't prove can be more intimate than the things you know to be true.

The not so great Popsicle caper

19761976 views2222 comments88 favs

"Ha ha!" I said triumphantly, "I've got some left and you don't!"

Breakfast Dance - a 55 word story

19761976 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…

Exasperation Management

19751975 views1313 comments1313 favs

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

Light Shot Water

19751975 views99 comments44 favs

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

They Would Judge His Trespasses

19751975 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.

Anti

19751975 views99 comments55 favs

“What do you call this place?” I didn't really want to talk much in there. For some reason, talking felt too—linear. The words seemed to have a kind of reverberation into associations that seemed somewhat meaningless at the time.”

Summer Reading

19751975 views55 comments33 favs

The summer everyone read Faulkner, I read Hemingway. Out of spite.

Hard To Know You Can't Go Back

19751975 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

Prompts

19741974 views1616 comments1313 favs

Write a poem in which your father is a dog and you are his leash.

Black Wheat, 2

19741974 views55 comments22 favs

They are really living (they) say things they don't mean . . . Do not know what they say Take the path without heart, seeing the image . . . The moon rises above them It does not move their blood Nothing calls out to their blo

We Threw These At Each Other

19741974 views55 comments22 favs

Jimmy wore a tie to top that torn green tee he toted every day, every other. He smelled of dirt, said he had a feeling we had watermelon somewhere since he caught a whiff from his room inside his house across the street.

Coffee Shop

19741974 views2424 comments1717 favs

He wore his hip in his hips, his lipsShe wanted to know if he would lick the edgesWhen he pulled the coffee cup from his mouthA bit of foam clung to his moustacheShe watched it there, wondering if he wouldTwirl it off with his fingersOr lick it, his tongue darting out like…

My Wife, My Love

19741974 views2121 comments1818 favs

When I died, she said, she was going to have me cremated and put my ashes in the cats’ litter box.

To Kill a Deer

19741974 views33 comments33 favs

On September 12th, 2011, the ban on deer hunting became official. Apparently, the hunting and killing of deer had become too cruel. The ban had been a long time in the making. Ever since man began hunting deer way back in the day—somewhere between a fe

Better Days

19731973 views66 comments55 favs

I peeled off a hundred. For the screwdriver, I said. The kid shook his head, made a pushing-away gesture. You need it worse’n I do right now, he said.

Happy Hour

19731973 views1919 comments1818 favs

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

What's It To You

19731973 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.

Three short-shorts

19731973 views1212 comments99 favs

Wake up! But it was already too late for Charles.

Squishy

19721972 views44 comments22 favs

Martin named it “Squishy” for two reasons. The first reason was because it was the noise it made when it came out of the hole in his basement. The second is because it’s what it did to Grandfather...

Rust

19721972 views66 comments44 favs

We lived in a white and mint green trailer in the woods. I was 23. The hanging of the clothes on the line made me feel kind of famous in the eyes of nature

A Walk

19721972 views77 comments33 favs

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

Berthier Door

19721972 views44 comments33 favs

On Day 1122 at 4:14 AM the door which has remained since installation firmly glued to the masonry behind opens and a man emerges blinking shielding his eyes against fine stinging snow.