Most read stories

Zumba, Meet Depression

18111811 views2121 comments1212 favs

The decision is made. I am going to a Zumba class. What better way to achieve behavior modification than to leave my TV and fuzzy bear slippers behind for some hot Latin aerobics in a strip-mall? I try to pull my hair into a ponytail that will make the two inches of…

The Nude Pianist: A Novel: Chapter 1

18111811 views88 comments77 favs

Before he was Francesco Martinelli

Wattle and Daub - 2

18111811 views1212 comments66 favs

~ ! ~

Alias

18111811 views66 comments33 favs

I can tell you all about rock bottom.

Kramer vs. Kramer

18111811 views1111 comments77 favs

Kramer wraps himself around Kramer’s legs, from behind, then lifts him and tips him up and over and down, per their rehearsed routine.

Something for you

18101810 views66 comments11 fav

Bearing the smell of paper on her fingertips. Ink in her hair.

Hats for Houses

18101810 views1111 comments66 favs

It is certain. The roofs are hats for the houses because you wear a hat in the rain or the snow or even and sometimes especially the sun. The houses are curious. They keep their hats on at night. The downspouts for run-off water are strands of hair such as…

Brot und Käse

18101810 views55 comments33 favs

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

Broadbeach Bargain Bin

18101810 views00 comments00 favs

The ice in Mum’s drink clinked as she rolled the glass across her forehead. “Ith that a gay thing or ith that a vampire thing? ’Coth I’m finding thith all a bit confuthing.”

All Fur and Bones

18101810 views00 comments11 fav

I wonder how much time she has left. I think she’s seventeen. I don’t know for sure because she was already grown when I got her from the pound, just before Christmas, years ago this was --back when I had hair and hope.

Casual

18101810 views1111 comments1010 favs

Slip me in Between the cracks in your schedule Between the sheets of your bed Between your memories and your fears Between your eyes and the moon where I'll twinkle at you Slip me in somewhere, I won't disturb you Won't make you want to push me away Let…

Christ walks the streets of Venice

18101810 views1212 comments1010 favs

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

How to Survive Your First Breakup (Anxiety)

18091809 views44 comments33 favs

And don’t you dare start panicking. Just sit there silently, letting the truth that you’re alone sear the back of your neck until it starts to feel cold.

Rams, NFL's Smartest Team, Forget to Make Playoffs

18091809 views1010 comments33 favs

“I was looking for the review of the Alvin Ailey dance company when I noticed something in the sports pages,” says the 300-pound center. “All of a sudden it hit me–I should have been playing football."

John & Jackie

18091809 views00 comments00 favs

By the time I learned how much I loved my family, I was 3 years and eight-hundred miles away from them

404

18091809 views1414 comments99 favs

By the thousands youngsters swarmed into the streets shuffling aimlessly, many mumbling to themselves, heads bowed as their eyes stared fixedly at the plastic devices in their hands.

Letters from the Aslyum (2)

18091809 views44 comments11 fav

Leo, leo, leo, leo, the word itself imprinted on my brain, carved with a pearl handled blade into my cerebral cortex, into the medulla, burrowed deep into my dreams, I miss your kissing.

Refugees

18081808 views88 comments22 favs

Four in the morning. I was awake because I'm always awake. There were little fog-halos around the streetlights.

And We Sell Apples 1977

18081808 views11 comment11 fav

I hear the car door slam. Steve, about to duck daddy-duty: Just gonna take a run to the Quickway. "Rudy," I say, "go get in the car. Tell Papo I said Wait."

Drunk Sonnet (for Meg Tuite)

18081808 views1919 comments1313 favs

perjured like a fickle impulse

The Soft, Cool Blanket of Night

18081808 views00 comments00 favs

wrap me in the soft, cool blanket of night. waning,the moon peers down at melike the heavy-lidded eye of some cyclops. and if I be lost like poor Odysseus,cloak me in the soft, warm wool of night. and if my eyes fail me like old Tiresias,stitch the cloth with…

Zhou Yu’s Train

18071807 views1010 comments55 favs

Are we like a poem, a short hand of words curtained together, evoking a mood, but in the end, impenetrable? We follow the clues to our lover's heart and what we find isn't him at all but ourselves. We fill every part of his life, every part of his past and even become…

221B Baker Street, London; 1:37 a.m.

18071807 views22 comments11 fav

He lays his piping accoutrement on the bedside table, removes his cap, brocaded jacket, boots and slacks. Holmes brushes gently, the back of his hand across the confused face of Watson— their…

Three Corpse Brunch: Part One

18071807 views00 comments00 favs

From the moment they had decided to come until the present, each seated guest had been parading one faceless male possibility after another through her curious mind. Would he be strong? Handsome? Ugly? Crippled? The possibilities were endless...

Death Masking Love

18071807 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…

Torn

18061806 views11 comment22 favs

My parents were married for forty five years. “A lifetime,” is how the rabbi at my mother's funeral describes it. The man says it with such a tone of familiarity, of genuine sadness, that one might think he has known and adored my parents all their lives. But…

I’m Sure They’ll Have an App for That

18061806 views77 comments44 favs

Already they’re taking away my books, supplanting them with Kindles and Nooks.

Phantom head syndrome

18061806 views33 comments22 favs

The Bird King suffers from phantom head syndrome. Ever since his decapitation by a critic, he has felt pain where his head used to be. Sometimes it wakes him in the night. It's so excruciating, he fumbles for a saw. But alas! there's nothing to chop off.He's seen every…

Slime

18061806 views22 comments22 favs

Once or twice he sees her around town when he’s out driving but other than that, I mean, it’s not like he was stalking her, he didn’t know where she went to school or what she did for a part-time job, he didn’t care, he wasn’t interested.

Fat Man in a Blizzard

18061806 views1717 comments1515 favs

There he was. Minnesota Fats, short and pudgy, jowly and blond-haired.