Most read stories

Not Lao-tzu's Yellow Brick Road, xxviii - xxxvii

19521952 views99 comments77 favs

master carvers do not reduce with carving.

Billie Holiday Visits Her Song

19521952 views44 comments44 favs

Why you keep a razor blade in your stocking?

ANYTHING FOR JOHNNY

19521952 views11 comment00 favs

After nine months, I was granted early parole...

Spring Uprising

19521952 views66 comments44 favs

Some people might find it strange and a bit obsessive to mow their lawn every day, but to Shiram it was an irreplaceable part of his daily existence.

That Buddhist Swing

19521952 views77 comments33 favs

We spend life, or much of it rather, chasing epiphanies promised to us by hip prophets and free spirits.

MindLight

19521952 views11 comment11 fav

{Chapter iv of Undermind} "What do you think of the light in our city at night?" It spreads out in every direction, following the hills and valleys of the city, visible into the far distance from the Penthouse party room on the 44th floor. "Gorgeous!…

Hemingway On Trash Day

19521952 views22 comments00 favs

The morning sun rose up over the flat prairie, and the powdery snow crunched as you walked on it, and the air was so crisp it hurt as you took a breath. That is good, I thought. That is how you knew you were alive, and I was truly very alive, and there was not much to do so…

Cake

19511951 views2525 comments1717 favs

A little poem

Cheque Republic

19511951 views77 comments33 favs

Maybe she thinks in Czech, dreams in German, pretends in English. Babylon is a beautiful place after all.

The Art of Joy

19511951 views00 comments00 favs

The girl who was me stands in a sandbox with upraised arms, honey hair tied with olive yarn in two ponytails. She says nothing, but wants me to pick her up.

Getting It Wrong

19511951 views11 comment00 favs

As Gino exited the supermarket, plastics bags in tow, he began doing curls with his right arm. He’d been doing this for years, reasoning that he might as well get some exercise during the walk home.

Star Heart

19511951 views1111 comments1111 favs

This is the place I could find my breath. I didn'tSay I understood it. I only wanted to hold someone andMeant to. I don't care about the rules for caring.This place where I could speak was incredibly far from Where I'd once met you. The place where I could…

With My Eye

19511951 views1212 comments77 favs

my space heater throws a pale orange light my white candles flicker in the middle of the night

Pectoralis Minor

19511951 views11 comment11 fav

Her thumbs tucked beneath the waistline of her pants, slightly pulling them down to expose the eternity between belly button and bliss. I looked up at her as I slid my tongue along the rail of her hip, sucking at its point.

Didn't I always let you have one of my cigarettes?

19511951 views2222 comments1212 favs

I liked the taste in my mouth, mint and cigarettes and fresh and filthy.

The Nudist Camp at the End of the Rainbow

19511951 views1111 comments55 favs

What did they even invent clothing for? I asked.

Flamingos

19511951 views33 comments11 fav

Over fifty plastic flamingos stood silently at attention... as if eating sea urchins out of our lawn.

Hysteria

19511951 views1515 comments1010 favs

On the birthday before he started school, he received a pencil case from his paternal grandparents. The violet, oblong pouch contained a pencil and a pencil sharpener in the same color. He didn't remember what had happened with the pencil or the sharpener, but he had…

One Billionth of a Lifetime

19511951 views00 comments00 favs

Bill was queasy, short of breath, his chest tightening. He was next. How he hated this game of confession. It was harder than going to a priest, which at least allowed a measure of anonymity. True, these were friends, yet, in terms of the game, he was vastly…

He Spreadeth Sharp Pointed Things upon the Mire

19511951 views1818 comments1313 favs

My uncle looks into the bleached eye of his cat and asks "What happened to my ear?" The meerkat’s eye replies: "You had cancer. Remember? They had to cut off your ear to save you."

Free Time

19511951 views00 comments00 favs

The desk calendar was brilliant, unused. The problems with it didn't begin until March.

Changing a Flat

19501950 views99 comments77 favs

Dark, green grass covered the pasture like millions of tiny fingers swaying in the heat.

That is That

19501950 views77 comments66 favs

Alexander Ivanovich stuck out his leg and tripped Daniil Ivanovich Yuvachev. Daniil Ivanovich Yuvachev stood up, took two steps forward, stuck out his leg and tripped Alexander Ivanovich.

Lost In Space

19501950 views00 comments00 favs

He was jolted awake from his light slumber by his pod crash landing. Landing? That means he found a planet. He opened the pod and got out to stretch his legs. He looked around. "Wow, and I thought Aleria was advanced. This is amazing."

Caitlin in the Y2K Museum

19501950 views22 comments11 fav

Two months after Peter moved out, it opened on the eastern-leaning boulevard, a stone's throw from the water. Caitlin heard about it from a friend at a bar three weeks after that, found that the concept wouldn't quietly settle in her mind, and made plans

Land of Our Fathers

19501950 views22 comments11 fav

He called me one Friday when I was a kid and told me he wanted to go trout fishing. He had dreamt that I was a worm or a fly -- he couldn't remember which -- but he was sure I would bring good luck to the stream. The next morning, before grandma awoke, I

When Kids Complain

19501950 views1515 comments1111 favs

They say, we have hangnails. I say, I have a bruised leg.

Bitter Love Story

19501950 views88 comments22 favs

the dogneck gave no support

Wild Dreams of Reality, 7

19501950 views00 comments00 favs

7 We sat in Darrell's truck in the deserted silent world of the down-trodden industrial area of West Berkeley, where no one in his right mind went at five in the morning. "Put the gun away, Darrell," I said. "I mean it." "I can't help but keep

Burn

19501950 views1111 comments1010 favs

I should have known to wear boots on Teddy’s motorcycle, but I didn’t know that when the engine heated the exhaust pipe became hot as a griddle. Teddy didn’t warn me, and I thought there was something wrong with that, but I let it go the way I jumped on h