Most read stories

Until the Dawn (part 1)

18081808 views22 comments11 fav

Tara was so tired. The bus connection was off again, and her ankles were so swollen. Maybe it was the heat, the humidity, she wasn't sure… but things were definitely getting worse. She sighed. At least the bus shelter had an empty spot on the bench, so as she…

Shatters

18081808 views44 comments00 favs

She collects slowly The pieces Each one Heavy with grief Precious and Also bitter

2006, What I Wanted

18081808 views1818 comments1212 favs

freedom from my mind

I'm Dying! And I Didn't Make The Bed!

18081808 views1111 comments99 favs

Five years ago, on January 15, 2009, Flight 1549 took off for Charlotte, North Carolina and, 3 minutes later, made an emergency landing in the Hudson River, with no serious harm to anyone but the geese who caused the problem. (They were liquefied into something…

A Tale of Two Writers

18071807 views11 comment11 fav

A famous author and an inspired writer meet at a coffee shop, both looking for inspiration. The patrons there don’t know if this meeting is by accident or design, but they are in awe of Fame.

Rebekah Just When the Drought Was Ending

18071807 views66 comments66 favs

But the best thing about Rebekah was the way she floated always beneath the scent of woodburn and dusty Middle America,

The Kicker

18071807 views44 comments11 fav

She had plain features suggestive of a Native American, which in fact, she was, partly, and she rarely wore makeup of any kind. She easily might have been indistinguishable in a moving crowd except for her loping gait and a tendency to move her hands arou

Coda in the Form of Three Haiku

18071807 views1212 comments88 favs

Nature has its way:

Beauty

18071807 views00 comments00 favs

"If only we could all look like that." "Truly lovely … such a perfect face." The gallery was busy that day. But still the man and woman stood.

The Distance Between You

18071807 views22 comments11 fav

It wasn't that I couldn’t imagine it. Rather, I could almost conjure the choreography to mind. One of his hands would graze at the side of my face. One finger would extend and stroke me, from my temples to my chin. He would press my body against something

The Rest Nowhere

18071807 views1919 comments1212 favs

A screaming comes across the brain

Dear Scarlet

18071807 views33 comments11 fav

It’s me walking in on you shooting up in the diner’s cesspool of a shitter, and you trying to conceal the evidence while you’re telling me it’s straight up your first time.

Me, Butterfly Hu, and the Damnable Season

18071807 views44 comments55 favs

When the city froze and the darkness began to arrive ahead of rush hour, my pills worked; Butterfly Hu’s did not. In a double blind trial, you can’t know who gets the miracle, and who gets the sugar.

Belief

18071807 views1313 comments22 favs

The child closed her eyes again. Outside was sparkling, sharp looking, when she blinked he’d be here, like when she went to sleep and found outside had been whitened with snow. She closed her eyes and opened them, then closed them again. When she opened

A Spark and a Flash

18071807 views44 comments11 fav

Butchie was the one who heard about the bonfire happening over on Harrison Avenue.

GRANDMA FLYNN

18061806 views66 comments33 favs

She shoved a small bottle under her aprons and came towards me, darkening the passageway from “Ancestor” by Thomas Kinsella The night I heard the Banshee she passed away. In my screaming fear dada and mama woke. …

Gabbie Zombie

18061806 views00 comments00 favs

And it whispered like any wood. And the blade moaned when he got too deep and tried to cut too much. And as the dead parts of him came off, in tendrils and dust, the man's chest began to move, like the hands around his heart had let go.

Double Vision

18061806 views44 comments33 favs

Maybe it’s the cold that has me seeing double. My sister in Florida would probably laugh, “I told you so” as she sips her pumpkin latte in the barely-cold.

Autobiography of a Head Bully, excerpts

18061806 views55 comments00 favs

On Saturday nights, they dream of you. You are the gas station they can’t own, the lottery they can’t win. You are beating up their boss, giving him a headache that will last through Wednesday morning, keep him home half the week.

Made in Japan - 2

18061806 views44 comments11 fav

My motivation as a filmmaker for traveling to Japan was economic and opportunistic. American military occupation had accelerated westernization and, when Japan regained its sovereignty in 1952, their economy was rapidly expanding. Led by manufacturing and export of items…

Coffee Shop

18061806 views88 comments66 favs

the/ orange/ tastes/ welcome

Wishes Shovel Best

18061806 views00 comments00 favs

Just as he expected, the reaction was spontaneous, euphoric and unequivocally positive. With just one exception. A politician connected with the home service of his parliamentary section's boss, with the mobile phone number 0-609-3459812, and known for hi

Love, a comet, omens and wings

18061806 views33 comments33 favs

My love for him like wax wings/ so long they stretched eternal— beating in the sky, grazing peaks,

Being In Love Is For High Schoolers Or Middle Aged Divorcees

18061806 views66 comments44 favs

But who am I kidding. We aren’t in love. Being in love is for high schoolers or middle aged divorcees exploring their sexuality. Our love is real, sweaty, backwards, forwards, angry, trusting. We love as you only can after seeing someone at their best and

Relic

18061806 views55 comments44 favs

While space and time opened up for us, the ground accelerated its attempts to devour the astronaut. Grasses grew up around his edges. Seeds propagated in the folds of his suit, tendrils found their way into the mysterious holes for the missing hoses that

Unlucky Star

18061806 views33 comments33 favs

“I don’t want you to, not even for one minute,” she continued, tone empowered, “Blame yourself. If anything, you’re the only one who has ever given a damn…” she thought more, then added, “…besides Jeremy.”

Wasps' Nest

18051805 views1313 comments77 favs

Here’s how you do it. First you get a ladder, a long one.

Progresso

18051805 views55 comments55 favs

I don't see why you didn’t get a dozen while you were at it.

Forever Four-Eyed

18051805 views77 comments66 favs

I'm a librarian. A reader. I identify as a four-eyed person. I've always worn glasses. I got my first pair in the second grade. It was a miracle! The blurry world I'd inhabited all my life suddenly came into focus. I could see the blackboard! I could read street signs! I…

Luc

18051805 views22 comments22 favs

Her wrinkles came into focus, the sort of old woman's face photographed for coffee tables and art galleries and corporate boardrooms, for prize juries and grant selection committees, and Luc searched his formidable memory for an exact match. Over the long, tedious…