Most read stories

A Clean Tent

18011801 views88 comments66 favs

“No,” he says. A simple lie. “I -” He pushes the sleeping bag off of his legs. Their getaway reset was a mistake.

Worms Shouldn't Drink Whiskey

18011801 views66 comments55 favs

I have two memories of my dad. The first is a story he liked to tell: So my old woman came home one day with a worm. She sets the worm on the counter and goes into…

Fruits of Passion

18011801 views44 comments00 favs

Lifting a pear wedge to my lips, I hesitate and dip it into my bourbon instead. I notice a tiny sphere of liquid, suspended, glistening with the flame of the candle. The sweet, subtle scent tantalizes my senses. Careless, sticky fingers bring movement.…

Migratory Mistakes

18011801 views00 comments00 favs

Unadorned tragedies pinpoint the worst angles of the road; simple crosses or bouquets line boulders painted with car crash smoke or skid marks that tiptoe to the edge of cliffs and then, apparently, leap.

Bravo, Scrittore!

18011801 views44 comments00 favs

I hadn't yet assembled enough pieces of Italian to explain any of this, but it was hardly necessary. The fact that I was a scrittore in a language foreign to her seemed to make me especially fascinating...

Until the Dawn (part 1)

18011801 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…

Me, Butterfly Hu, and the Damnable Season

18011801 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.

Morning

18011801 views2020 comments99 favs

Leaves dance their way down,unfazed by this September heat. Bus stop routines set already-summer ended years ago.A chipmunk scampers undera parked truck while once againthe young man does his morning…

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

18011801 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…

Charms L.P.

18001800 views55 comments11 fav

Funny, you can drink wine and eat stale crackers, but you cannot suck a simple lollipop? Where does it say that in the bible? Nowhere, that’s where.

Forever Four-Eyed

18001800 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…

Double Vision

18001800 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.

Made in Japan - 2

18001800 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…

Coda in the Form of Three Haiku

18001800 views1212 comments88 favs

Nature has its way:

Fall

18001800 views00 comments00 favs

Nick frowned, the changing of the leaves reminding him of the graying of his hair.. He'd never appreciated the colors of fall, as they heralded frost, winter, which he hated more and more each passing year.

Matisse, in the Jardin des Tuileries, 1904

18001800 views77 comments66 favs

The World's Worst Mime stood there next to the iron carousel, portraying something, and the crowd understood none of it, except that whatever thing he was trying to portray was not being portrayed well at all.

Five Million Yen: Chapter 1

18001800 views44 comments11 fav

The DC-9 bounced in the turbulence over the north Pacific waking the dozing Ben Clarone.

2006, What I Wanted

18001800 views1818 comments1212 favs

freedom from my mind

Clock

18001800 views11 comment11 fav

I know it was the ceremonial magician who talked you into it. I know it was supposedly to be what the Enochean Angels needed to come into the vortex and into the world, make it all balanced on all four sides, four elements, so that when the world ended, t

Unlucky Star

18001800 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.”

Progresso

17991799 views55 comments55 favs

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

The Kicker

17991799 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

Wishes Shovel Best

17991799 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

17991799 views33 comments33 favs

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

Oversleeping & Getting in Trouble for It

17991799 views00 comments00 favs

A few people bristled and looked at Jim, but since he was avoiding their gaze, they had no choice but to return their attention to their own table and pretend to pay attention to the conversation they previously had been pretending to pay attention to.

Relic

17991799 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

Modulus of Elasticity

17991799 views1919 comments1515 favs

The limbs lift again,

Educating an American

17991799 views77 comments33 favs

Note to self: look up Bobby Sands.

Ghost Questions

17991799 views1111 comments99 favs

What if I never feel like a real artist? What does it even mean to be a "real" artist? What if nobody ever cares about what I make?

Laughingly rejected by The New Yorker

17981798 views99 comments44 favs

...and we laughed.