Most read stories

The Case for Mashed Potatoes

18931893 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.…

Peach (2)

18931893 views1111 comments66 favs

He has stubby, rough little fingers. Good.

Razor Wire

18931893 views66 comments22 favs

I flip up my hoodie, pull the string tight across my lips until it cuts into them, pull tighter, saw back and forth until blood warms the hairs on my chin.

The Big Game

18931893 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.

The Sky-What Limit?

18931893 views00 comments00 favs

Lighter-than-air flight was back. The skies of the coast were alight with colorful balloons, dirigibles, and zeppelins tethered to their docking towers along the beach, the huge aircraft bobbing in the breeze up and down the coast for miles,…

Suspended

18921892 views99 comments88 favs

In the beginning the revolution was all motion and energy. When the President for Life resigned motion and energy disappeared with the sounds of clapping hands.

The Days of Man

18921892 views00 comments11 fav

They drifted for months, locked between the vast merciless blue and the withering sun. Their faces blistered and their minds bleached and weary. They conspired in the shadows, drew plans in the sawdust, they grew confident and…

Small Change

18921892 views1414 comments1414 favs

Life seemed okay…for the most part.

Conversation between Young Men

18921892 views11 comment00 favs

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

The Atlantic

18921892 views2020 comments88 favs

Phoebe-Lou Adams wrote this of them

Quiet

18911891 views1414 comments1212 favs

He says, You think too much and he grins a grin that has all of the attic keys on a wrought iron ring, on a chain.

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

18911891 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 Queue

18911891 views22 comments11 fav

She persisted. “How long have we been here?” A note of anger crept into his voice. “How long? How long? Why …, why ….” He swallowed hard, realized he had forgotten.

Pterodactyls

18911891 views1111 comments88 favs

In his head he thinks oh whatever when I wake this time I shall have a very fine discussion with Someone special, oh but finding meaning in anything nowadays that's Just too much rich flattery, isn't it, filthy mirror? Inside His head's…

Stumptown Mary

18911891 views22 comments11 fav

so one time the Holy Ghost come down to Stumptown

Assay the Assail

18911891 views22 comments22 favs

No one is a Puritan under all that powder!

five discards or less

18911891 views66 comments55 favs

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

Chicagoo (from Swink literary journal)

18911891 views11 comment11 fav

When Kim handed me some of her husband’s condoms—“Here, use these”—out of one of their bedroom dresser drawers, could she sense the astonishment I was trying my best not to show?

Flowers for Our Dead Lovers

18911891 views11 comment11 fav

We brought flowers for our dead lovers

Charlie Rose Chats with Mark Twain

18901890 views1717 comments1212 favs

It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.

Dos Equis

18901890 views1616 comments88 favs

dos equis ambar sits cool and dark by my side

A Christmas Tale

18901890 views77 comments22 favs

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

True Vocation

18901890 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

Game Night

18901890 views33 comments11 fav

We’re all competitive and drunk.

Wrong Number

18901890 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…

Considering the Mailman

18901890 views77 comments22 favs

It’s not just the mailman. It’s the logo on the mailbox down the street. It’s the uniform. It’s any man or woman in the whole unsettling profession.

Comes a Little Dog

18901890 views1010 comments22 favs

Time Holds Ultimately Nothing Dear Except Reunion

Yakkety-Yak

18901890 views33 comments33 favs

Last night, the station played me a dream of sexual promiscuity that included -- but was not limited to -- imaginative acts involving....

Curb Appeal

18901890 views33 comments22 favs

He kept the lawn mowed at the perfect height. He mowed it twice a week to one inch. Some weeks he mowed it a third time for good measure.

A Journey of Seven Thousand Miles

18901890 views1111 comments99 favs

The taste of / what is denied us is always sweet