Most read stories

A Free Rinse

17121712 views33 comments33 favs

“Turn the fucking thing off!” I yelled above the noise. “It’s fucking New Year’s morning!”

Anhedonia (excerpt 2)

17121712 views22 comments00 favs

Crazy. I really hate when people use that word.

The Kicker

17121712 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

GOD'S FACE

17121712 views33 comments00 favs

I was a Cub Scout, and the face of God was a joke that was told to my little pack. The joke went as thus:

The Whore

17121712 views66 comments66 favs

The man and the whore lay in bed together. It was a cold night and they were warmed by the heat beneath the…

Excerpt from House in the Attic

17121712 views22 comments22 favs

We stopped at the Western Summit of the Mohawk Trail. Below Richland lay in the valley. I could see all the way to New York State and well into Vermont. From memory, I picked out the Hoosac River running south under the railroad

Laughingly rejected by The New Yorker

17111711 views99 comments44 favs

...and we laughed.

My Name is Philippe

17111711 views00 comments00 favs

I ought to see, in Mr. Smith's dilated pupils, the projection of his last reverie.

Piggy Bank

17111711 views11 comment11 fav

He shivered in his robe and pajama pants as the showdown with the piggy bank continued on this dark winter’s night. He couldn’t resist the cute dots for eyes, the stubby legs and perked up ears.

Doors

17111711 views1111 comments55 favs

Marge came home with a Doors CD.

A Story

17111711 views1313 comments99 favs

Like many little towns, ours has an archive. It is a catalog of everything that happens.

Hard

17101710 views1010 comments55 favs

Rounding a corner, Clarissa wiped out and hit the floor chin-first. She wailed and the dildos skittered away under a display.

Police Mistakenly Release Murderer: An Analysis

17101710 views99 comments66 favs

He has no plan, he needs a plan, he has no plan, he needs a plan -- the two thoughts bounce around inside his skull like racquet balls.

Fin

17101710 views77 comments11 fav

She doesn’t answer. Ten minutes slide by unmolested in the anesthesia of cheap wine and resignation, the bouncers blurring and unblurring, the room dimming, quieting, the kaleidoscope of sundown giving way to the gentle sadness of candlelight.

Strange Fruit of Unrewarded Labor

17101710 views2626 comments1616 favs

Poets are more like Jesus,/ suffering the cross

The Town Secrets

17101710 views22 comments11 fav

How old is he anyway? 35? Maybe 40? Old—but in a good and sophisticated way. Everyone says he’s good-natured and generous, Mr. John-just-like-a-movie-star-Wagner.

Coda in the Form of Three Haiku

17101710 views1212 comments88 favs

Nature has its way:

Carrie Nadeau

17101710 views1414 comments1010 favs

She wouldn't have been the first.

Incidentally

17101710 views33 comments00 favs

It started (or maybe ended) with the boot flying off the balcony and bouncing in the dead grass in front of our building.

In the Red

17101710 views2121 comments1919 favs

The younger woman asked Scott if he loved Jesus.

Bookmark

17101710 views55 comments22 favs

Some books are like old friends and when you read them, you no longer feel alone.

Big Hotel Inside of a Jungle Brain

17101710 views88 comments88 favs

He's not something you'll want, waiting for you, inside your living room's ear. Go and see your family. Breathe the broad daylight whenever you can. I got lost in some free form dog caves. That's all. That's no path to aspire to …

A Tale of Two Writers

17091709 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.

Liz@Phil

17091709 views1919 comments99 favs

Liz didn’t steal his heart / she embezzled it

Snake, Rope

17091709 views1919 comments33 favs

The snake was fang-less and so had to choke her, making the kill bloodless and drawn out, just the way she liked it.

take

17091709 views55 comments44 favs

THERE'D been mutterings on the shareholders' board about a dodgy deal shoved through. In the rush after the towers' thing to get out relevant stock an executive producer had signed off on some film school kid for five big ones to shoot a…

Mannequin

17081708 views55 comments33 favs

Having sex with her there made me feel like a child molester, I said. She said it made her excited.

Alignment

17081708 views1313 comments88 favs

The human/ is less dependable than these pinpricks// and the lunar cycle.

28

17081708 views44 comments44 favs

The signal sets the faint young boys into motion

She lets her intentions guide her

17081708 views1616 comments1111 favs

“If 'neighbor' applies to women who covet—'deliriously desire'—husbands from Angers, then one day he'll be your husband's neighbor," I say.