Most read stories

Source Code

20372037 views1616 comments1515 favs

....the first/ in a long history of indignities.

Letter to the Bean Factory

20372037 views66 comments22 favs

The figure was covered in a light blue chenille bathrobe, splayed out on her back on the floor by the glass door, her hair done up in large curlers, a slipper lying askew by her left foot. Richie crouched near the face and the rancid flame of bourbon lea

Serial

20372037 views88 comments44 favs

He beats the girl, stabs her 22 times, rapes her, then uses his fingertips to push her orbital sockets into the back of her head before killing her. At trial, he laughs about whether or not there…

Zombies Calling

20372037 views11 comment22 favs

The zombie apocalypse was long foretold as a rather exciting bit of bother involving shotguns and chainsaws, but the reality of it is rather depressingly boring.

The Mosaic Thief

20372037 views66 comments11 fav

Bit by bit I was traveling away, we thought. Maybe I’d join myself, all together, in Toronto. Or in an industrial coffee can. Or in the closet. “Check the closet,” I pointed.

The Bicycle Mechanic

20372037 views1414 comments1212 favs

The hour reflected those pleasant moments when evening hunger can be satiated by anticipation alone, before the pangs become demanding.

Contagious Blinking

20372037 views22 comments22 favs

He pulls on his wispy goatee and shifts his weight a few times from one foot to the other. That doesn’t help. It rarely does, to be honest.

Polaris

20362036 views1010 comments77 favs

Things get lost in Big John, too. I see the other guys throw jokes about his size at his body that wedge their way into his armpits or into the wrinkles of his laugh lines and disappear. I’m not sure if it all disappears to remind us how small we are,

Not Tired

20362036 views99 comments44 favs

Three hours isn't that long.

The Tree is Farther to the Man

20362036 views1313 comments1111 favs

I am constricted by rings. The weight of self crushes me.

Time

20362036 views22 comments11 fav

time. Night after night he's up, restless. What if she knew his plans? If only he'd bypass his miscalculations and slip through

The Widow's Morning

20362036 views11 comment11 fav

Whispers flew, like wild darts across the room. I didn’t know what I was supposed to say. Right then, it wasn’t my job to figure things out; it was my job to cry.

When Borders was Alive and Well

20362036 views88 comments77 favs

I'd been working for two years as a barista in a Starbuck's in a giant, two-story Borders in an upscale mall on Rt. 355, a main artery between Washington D.C., and Frederick, Maryland. I'd finished my M.F.A in 2000 and was trying to build up steam for more grad…

Post-Op

20362036 views1515 comments99 favs

She tells Tuesday's lover that there's nothing wrong with cheap thrills without anesthesia,

The Silence of Harold

20362036 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. …

Disparity

20362036 views1313 comments1010 favs

sacred ground bleached with the salt of bitter tears

Sidereal

20352035 views2929 comments1616 favs

"...they ran shirtless like pagans under southern stars."

Aloha

20352035 views1010 comments99 favs

It’s a little known fact that eels are often lost in translation – only the spotted variety, not the striped or the common and certainly not the electric.... I think about that lovely hippie girl and her knowledge of eels, sometimes.

Holding Hands in Public

20352035 views55 comments00 favs

Take my hand. Take my hand and we will sail through the atmosphere leaving trails of rainbow speckled life written in musical notes behind us. We can go anywhere you want, whenever you wish. The moon in 1974. I hear the earth looks gorgeous during the seventies.…

The Burning Gulf

20352035 views88 comments44 favs

None of us ever thought this would happen.

Happiness

20352035 views1717 comments99 favs

Can you find happiness in the middle of a kidney stone attack?

Perversion

20352035 views77 comments55 favs

“It’s a sad thing,” I said, “when a man has to suffer just for getting a little on the side.”

Kin of His

20352035 views3030 comments1818 favs

I dreamed that coffee grounds had spilled on my Buffet. There was another clarinet, a silver one, that belonged to a man not in the room, that was clean of debris.

Sad Songs

20352035 views1313 comments1212 favs

She was thrilled when she learned that her best friend was having an affair.

Body to go

20352035 views44 comments11 fav

I’m squatting naked over the hand mirror, feet cold on the terrazzo floor, looking at my winking arsehole.

On Work

20352035 views1515 comments1010 favs

From my resume'.

Upon Learning the Fetus Has Fingernails

20352035 views1111 comments44 favs

Upon learning the fetus has fingernails, Missy texts her boyfriend: It has nails! He won’t reply because he’s just left for war, but she does it just the same.

Imago Mundi

20342034 views1212 comments99 favs

in which creative destruction holds the heads of entire populations beneath the surface of the water in bathtubs until the bubbles stop

THERE IS AN I.V. OF THE TIMES I HAVE THOUGHT, "I DON'T KNOW WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT" AND IT IS SWELLING MY VEINS

20342034 views1010 comments77 favs

god bless my shapeless head. we are good at becoming older. i feel incredibly negative all the time.

The Man Whose Wife Lived in His Neck

20342034 views2323 comments1515 favs

This is the story of the man whose wife lived in his neck. Every morning, he would turn to her and say, "Hello, Sweetheart. How was your night?" and she would answer, Brilliant! What else?