Most read stories

Secret Life of Storms

19731973 views66 comments55 favs

Someday, the Grim Reaper, wrapped in hooded cowl, the thorny stem of a red rose clenched between his teeth, will climb up the garden trellis to my bedroom window

1985...What I wanted

19721972 views1313 comments99 favs

with cool confidence and believable body language

Sgt. Nelson, KIA

19721972 views1313 comments44 favs

. . . she didn’t bow her head.

Hostage Festival

19721972 views22 comments00 favs

“We’re prisoners,” Sean reminded the guard. “Prisoners of your military.” “You have never been treated as such.” Captain Hughes looked around the bar. “This festival is a celebration of you, of all of you. We pride ourselves on ou

Full Circle

19721972 views1515 comments1313 favs

I staggered away in the storm tears frozen to my cheeks.

Drunk Sonnet (for Meg Tuite)

19721972 views1919 comments1313 favs

perjured like a fickle impulse

Three

19721972 views1111 comments44 favs

Men and their inevitable disappointments—sure, why not?

Epitaph N+1

19721972 views1818 comments1616 favs

We die in order to get some rest

Backwards

19711971 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

The Night Bird

19711971 views00 comments00 favs

A night bird lands on the windowsill with a struggling copper moth in its beak. The bird cocks its head at Rasmus, then swallows the clockwork insect in a gulp before flying away.

Awakening

19711971 views11 comment11 fav

What? No, no, where did my world go? I was in the middle of… something. What's going on? What's stroking my face?

Super Collider

19711971 views1010 comments22 favs

I never pulled it off, never rode an atom through a super collider with a nose full of cocaine and a drink in my hand. Never was a bullet, zooming through the city, skin pressed to bone, nerves on fire. Never was an atom bomb, ever-exploding in slow motion, ripping off…

Fool of Me

19711971 views77 comments66 favs

This no man's island I'm perched high above isn't always so beautiful to the casual beholder of newly printed maps. Oh don't go and get your clouds all wrong. Puffed or thin, everything I say I believe in is a real feeling, until the music dies…

The Silence of Harold

19711971 views1919 comments1111 favs

It's been sixteen days since I spoke with another soul. I don't mind much, but I know enough about people to know most would think I'm mighty odd. Muriel, for example. She'd be pissed as all get out. …

Rainbow

19701970 views11 comment00 favs

“What I really want to know is, why is a straight guy called Caspar opening a lesbian leather bar in Berlin anyway?” Shona asked. “Schöneberg must really be going to the dogs.”

To the Bonfire Rhumba (ELECTRIC DELIRIUM 1.9)

19701970 views66 comments22 favs

The night is a jelly slosh, a fertile rumble, a rhumba, black and seeping, thick. An arm rises.

Kite

19701970 views55 comments11 fav

One year, she got a kite.

Fish Stew

19701970 views55 comments44 favs

It made a satisfying ‘pop’ when Donnie’s nose crushed under my knuckle-scared right. I threw another to his jaw, and then a left into his gut. It had forced the air out and Donnie crumpled to the floor gasping, half sitting, gurgling through his nose.

Record of a Living Being

19701970 views11 comment11 fav

Kurosawa was silent as we traipsed through the destruction, carefully side-stepping piles of sodden pages and heaps of swollen, broken-backed texts. Workers in coveralls used wide brooms to push water toward a floor-drain at the back of the store.

One Last Word

19701970 views11 comment11 fav

Almost 24 hours ago in Pakistan, Osama Bin Laden was sleeping just as he had slept every night for the hundreds of days prior; comfortable in a million dollar compound with his son and advisors around him...

I A Dog

19691969 views44 comments11 fav

I am a dog – four legs, a tail, a carefree enough manner, I do this, I do that, get into fights, sniff the ground and so on

Stories in the Dirt

19691969 views1111 comments77 favs

I walk back home, alone and without the bus fare. Distancing myself from the shadows that float interminably against the drowsy sun. Where frightened boys often roam, going in circles against the long lines of epitaphs and gravestones. Puzzling…

Prairie Yields

19691969 views2222 comments1515 favs

The river’s not/ a river but/ a FEMA map/ of flooding probabilities.

Cleverbot conversation RSC00206460

19691969 views11 comment11 fav

maybe if I bat my lashes just right, or look prim enough to fly, you just might touch me tonight, and the dream will pop and fizz and I will wake somewhere, your hands smoothing these lines of worry away.

Gastronomy

19691969 views33 comments22 favs

your olive-pitting thumbs

Bound

19691969 views00 comments00 favs

“You have an impressive pair there,” he says, hands warm as he cups them. “Shame they’re on a man though.”

Christ walks the streets of Venice

19691969 views1212 comments1010 favs

Christ walks the streets of Venice,/has long since become a regular . . .

Intro To the Great American Novel

19691969 views33 comments33 favs

First, the title: How George Bush And the Lovely Danielle Saved Planet Earth From Zork the Galactic Destroyer. A little unwieldy perhaps but still, a grabber. Already you're thinking, George Bush? Saving Earth? Did he die by his own fucking hand?…

Food for Thought

19691969 views1313 comments1111 favs

I could never be a chef.Preparing creations that will merely be consumed.If I were a chef,I'd have to create dishes that required chewingand chewing and chewing.I'd find it better for my dishes to be destroyed in the mouth.Remembered for their…

The Tall Man’s Secret

19681968 views88 comments55 favs

For the next two hours, Ed goes nonchalantly about his business, buck naked the whole time. He putters around the house, writes e mails, waters plants, vacuums the rug and sweeps the porch. I pretend to ignore his nudity