Most read stories

Casting It

19291929 views1010 comments55 favs

Truth came out of it, a little bug that hovered there...

A Quantum of Disappointment

19281928 views1818 comments1212 favs

Reality winks at us then scampers off

All I Know About Grandfather

19281928 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

First the Newborn Birds on High and Then the Awful Climbing Beasts

19281928 views1212 comments88 favs

"Stop watching the news!Because the news contrives to frighten youTo make you feel small and aloneTo make you feel that your mind isn't your own"--MorrisseyThe world has gone crazy, but please let me make you One of my healing songs. You can eat it now, if you…

The Case for Mashed Potatoes

19281928 views44 comments11 fav

Steam rolls out of the bathroom as Mr. Larson opens the door with a white towel around his waist. Pepper strolls up to him and purrs as she rubs her long, gray tail against his tanned legs."Hey, girl.” He runs his coarse, scarred fingers through the cat's soft coat.…

five discards or less

19281928 views66 comments55 favs

weep or go stark mad your amanuensic fool will bury your words

The Atlantic

19281928 views2020 comments88 favs

Phoebe-Lou Adams wrote this of them

Thursday

19281928 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,…

Obituary

19281928 views99 comments22 favs

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

The Big Game

19281928 views33 comments55 favs

The vampire donated floodlights so the children could play ballgames at night. The lights came on but the dugouts remained vacant. The vampire sat alone in the bleachers. “Sometimes I am less than the sum of my parts,” he said to the sum of his parts.

Mule

19271927 views2222 comments1717 favs

Sometimes cats had to die or dogs

March Madness

19271927 views1010 comments33 favs

“I’ll be damned,” he said. “I never knew where that was.”

Weary

19271927 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.

Conversation between Young Men

19271927 views11 comment00 favs

It was stubborn early winter, when everyone was cold but went outside anyways, rubbing red fingers and shuffling feet.

The Laughing Grave

19271927 views1010 comments77 favs

Newhouse returned his gaze to his wet palm, which he lifted to his nose with suspicion, sniffed again and again, then struggled to move out from under the growing stream.

Twister

19271927 views1515 comments1414 favs

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

As Pleat

19261926 views1010 comments66 favs

I turn up the music and slip into drone, rock it like a tunnel in canary. When that does not erase his face, I cup my breast with one hand and let my hair fall.

Unveiling Kirkiss Automated Amazon Reviews!!!

19261926 views2020 comments1212 favs

No! No! Nonononono!

True Vocation

19261926 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

Wrong Number

19261926 views77 comments33 favs

The package arrived, delivered to her work as was her preference. She took it to the ladies room and sat on the lounge, carefully opening the box, removing the new black patent leather FMQs, pulling out the tissue paper stuffed into the toes and placing her well-worn…

Where Is Daddy?

19251925 views66 comments55 favs

He checks the bedrooms first, then the hallway, followed by the living room and the bathrooms. When he can't find you he takes to calling out, daddy, I'm sure the neighbors hear.

Of Mugs and Men

19251925 views44 comments22 favs

I want to break that mug. (Break him.)

Cucumbertini

19251925 views44 comments22 favs

“Really? And you write…?” asked her breasts in the black dress, making excellent eye contact. He smiled at them.

A Journey of Seven Thousand Miles

19251925 views1111 comments99 favs

The taste of / what is denied us is always sweet

The Chicken In A Can Incident: A Cautionary Christmas Tale

19251925 views33 comments33 favs

Don't feed it to the dog, it has bones, it is a whole goddamn chicken in a can, and I can't stress that enough. Besides one year you gave me a toilet seat for Christmas. I couldn't even eat that Ky

Folded Up

19241924 views1010 comments88 favs

Time to pull in the shining teeth, but it makes me so sad, you know I'd rather be holding hands. The others have told me, don't hold back, hit them with every white knuckle, and let them bleed out, I'd rather be kissing your face. It hurts,…

Albatross Antics

19241924 views00 comments00 favs

Track One Johnny Burkemeister, lead vocals and flutist of the band Albatross Antics, sits on his bed thinking in silence. His elbow rests on his knee, and his palm on his forehead with his fingers running through his dirty-blonde hair. He is staring at a copy of Paste…

Made in Japan

19241924 views1717 comments44 favs

It was in the spring of 1958 when I first arrived in Kobe, Japan, traveling aboard a Norwegian merchant ship, looking to make movies on a limited budget. Superior quality cameras, lenses, and film were being produced in Japan at a fraction of the cost for similar products…

Wild Dreams of Reality, 9

19241924 views00 comments00 favs

As we sat at the cafe, Darrell told me that he had to make a mushroom delivery to one of his clients in Berkeley. I never knew whether it was legal or illegal business he was on, and he made a point of not telling me, because he said it was better I didn

toupee

19241924 views11 comment00 favs

It wasn't until about 2:30 that my hairpiece began mauling small children.