Most read stories

The Paris American

19371937 views44 comments22 favs

He returned to America on the Fourth of July. Twisting in his cramped window seat miles above the Atlantic, he buckled up before the descent. “You can handle this,” he muttered. Hungover, still reeling from the dreamy head-turning experience of…

The Little Dog from Outer Space

19371937 views1111 comments88 favs

I looked at her, shook my head and tried to smile. She smiled back, beaming a radiance that pushed away the chill.

Strip (Her)

19371937 views77 comments66 favs

There’s not enough cigarette cloud to conceal her, malnourished and pale beneath blue and pink lights that summon 80s-era skate rinks. She saunters towards the center of the stage, asking her bored expression to convey detachment, while a DJ that fits the

laundry

19371937 views1212 comments1010 favs

She’d once read the Time-Life Encyclopedia on The Universe and became obsessed with the woman from Alabama who was singled out, by a rock from a far place, in her sleep.

Badface Investigates – Scarification: (draft)

19371937 views00 comments00 favs

I can barely feel the blade as it first goes in. I'm pleasantly surprised. But as she drags the knife across my skin the pain increases becoming more and more painful rising to a point of unbearable agony the further she cuts.

Did I Tell You I Have Stripes On My Socks?

19361936 views88 comments55 favs

Kids are fascinated by me. Adults look the other way. Maybe it's my size. Or maybe it's the stories in the newspapers.

All I Know About Grandfather

19361936 views66 comments44 favs

There were days in my youth when, through no fault of their own, my parents could not drive me the seven mile trip to my elementary school. When I got older they bought me a bike and that proved duly adequate as conveyance. But when I was six years in age

Borden, Dream on Lord of the Pies.

19361936 views22 comments11 fav

A plague of dykes mattered not. This spider-girl had driven the world of thought from Borden’s mind.

Dos Equis

19361936 views1616 comments88 favs

dos equis ambar sits cool and dark by my side

Mt. Hood

19361936 views33 comments33 favs

To what better worlds remain.

The Measure Of A Man

19361936 views44 comments11 fav

Cos I play hard that’s why. Everyday hard. You want someone who ain’t an everyday player ? Try our Closer. But ain’t his fault he’s always sat there in the pen, like he’s taken root. His number lines rely on the rest of the team. So he’s flatl

A Christmas Tale

19361936 views77 comments22 favs

leaning over the banister, her Christmas waist making the wood swoon and creak, a warning sign if there ever was one...

The Book Mind

19361936 views66 comments66 favs

The book mind, just like its namesake the book, is capable of movement only after its assembly: otherwise, it boasts no moving parts.

Hobos: Paris vs. San Francisco

19361936 views77 comments22 favs

French pee runs stronger, less minty. In France the world' a pissoir.

The Last Bailout

19361936 views00 comments00 favs

In desperation, the city council imported a shaman to exorcise whatever demons had possessed the house.

Mule

19351935 views2222 comments1717 favs

Sometimes cats had to die or dogs

A Quantum of Disappointment

19351935 views1818 comments1212 favs

Reality winks at us then scampers off

Commute

19351935 views88 comments44 favs

Fred's ruined face stared back at him from a fractured, mold-spotted mirror. The remains of breakfast pooled around his feet and a pair of lace panties clung to his shoe, glued there by God knew what. Bits of flesh were stuck between his yellow teeth, alo

The Unpublished Writer and His Love Interest (The Painter)

19351935 views22 comments00 favs

When the writer expressed with subtle alacrity that he adored the painter, she was flattered and didn't raise objection. The writer-in his aloof manner, with experienced caution-pointedly wrote a poem directly for his muse. She never spoke of it, and hi

David and Goliath

19351935 views99 comments88 favs

The giant hurled threats and insults. He brandished a knife that was a foot long.

Thursday

19351935 views1717 comments1010 favs

Every Thursday, around 11 am, right after the cemetery where I work receives the daily shipment of cremated remains to be interred, a frail nonagenarian steps out of the driver's seat of his Lincoln Continental and walks, unassisted, up a flight of twenty granite steps,…

If I Was A Bum

19351935 views33 comments00 favs

If I was a bum I’d risk everything for a drink or a smoke I would beg and curse and steal if I was a bum If I was a bum I would cuss out the Pope I would not vote for anyone because I would know truly they’d be telling gross lies

Obituary

19351935 views99 comments22 favs

I won't fail at this like trying to fix a leaking sink without mud grease or washers tinier than Cheerios.

Twister

19351935 views1515 comments1414 favs

The rain pelted down, it got dark, and they couldn't see a thing. The wind roared like a thousand locomotives.

Things I saw before and after I broke into my neighbour's apartment

19341934 views22 comments00 favs

Before Plasma screen TV Futon Underwear (brief style) piled on kitchen chair Unopened mail from funeral parlour Water in the sink coloured orange with grease Desktop computer (flying toasters screen saver) Cigarette butts floating…

Magnum Opus

19341934 views44 comments33 favs

The scaffolding had been difficult to construct. The rock floor of the bluff offered no purchase, so he'd been forced to anchor braces to the trees behind, then span some thirty feet. A cantilevered gallows reached another fifteen feet past the stage...

lament of Liu Ch'e . . . while elsewhere--

19341934 views77 comments66 favs

in her silk sleeves is silence sheathed.

Weary

19341934 views11 comment00 favs

At this time of night, the fluorescence makes his eyes bleed. The muscles in his legs are tight; walking's more of a necessity than anything else. Alexander pushes the shopping cart down the endless gray tile floors of the Grand Union on 35.

Novel excerpt: "Home Cure"

19341934 views55 comments00 favs

He picked up the bottle of gin, looked at it. "Not a lot left," he said. "There's enough," she replied. She took the bottle and lifted it to her lips. "Are you ready?" she asked. "For what?" "You'll see."

True Vocation

19341934 views11 comment11 fav

After lunch it's vocal coaching: shrieking, screaming, crying Oh-my-God!-Oh-my-God!-Oh-my-God!, panting and face fanning. Next it's ‘situational training', where we pretend to be audience members on real talk shows and practice everything we've learned th