Most read stories

Sister (pt. 1)

16631663 views55 comments33 favs

Slept on a chair last night in the Springfield, Mass., bus terminal. It was March, and a dude in shorts asked: "Yo, you smoke trees?" I said, "Sure. Who doesn't?" He said, "You buyin'?" I said, "Nope, I'm going out of the country." He smiled and said, "Alright." He started…

The Clarity of Loss

16631663 views66 comments44 favs

This year I did not markthe day of your death.I let it slip by in an afternoonfilled with music you'll never hear,words you'll never read,a chorus of voices raised in protestat the unwavering passage of time.I don't need a numberto know that you are gone.Since you went…

Mobile

16631663 views77 comments77 favs

They stand together in the doorway looking at the crib.

Musica en La Habana

16631663 views00 comments00 favs

Mayra heard the bell ring and opened the door to her small home in downtown Havana. Mayra was in her 50's and had the beautiful dark olive skin of most Cuban people who have a mix of Caucasian and Negro in their blood.

In The Kitchen

16631663 views77 comments33 favs

drips of blood vegetal

Out of the Question

16631663 views00 comments00 favs

"Then why? Why?" she choked. "Why are you so... so mean to me?"

Christmas

16621662 views1010 comments66 favs

My first girlfriend had blue Christmas lights strung on trees in front of her stone house. My family had all gone to bed. When midnight came, it was snowing.

Motel

16621662 views77 comments66 favs

Brody was standing against the wall with one hand in his hip pocket, as if he was holding a gun. The motel was set in the undergrowth of several weedy small towns, but a flashing neon sign made it impossible to miss from the road. We used it as a safe hou

Wax Off

16621662 views1111 comments66 favs

The time has come to scrape the wax from my menorah.

Latté plus

16621662 views1010 comments77 favs

Hurried, hassling suit in front of me is being awful to the barista. So she refuses to serve him, turning away.

PIGEONS

16621662 views66 comments33 favs

Ellen decided to soft-pedal the one month to live thing. Really, there was barely time for the patient to read Ellen's brochure.

Salt Water

16621662 views99 comments66 favs

A horizon shrinks a burden until it’s a seagull getting fat off vinegar fries. I’m in love with the way your mouth moves when you aren’t talking. When it fills with salt.

Commitment

16621662 views33 comments22 favs

I have committed to nothing. Therefore I have committed to something. The first sentence is now moot, and this story will eat itself.

"If I die again, just let me go"

16621662 views11 comment11 fav

Will wondered if Doobie was afraid that it might be nothing but the abyss waiting on the other side, but he promised Doobie he’d let him pass on if it was finally his time.

Paying for Dinner at a French Restaurant So You Will Love Me

16621662 views55 comments55 favs

What does she have / that I don’t have / that I can’t buy / for myself?

The Good Old Days

16621662 views66 comments66 favs

What she didn't tell me was that her brother Carl got fried during an electrical storm.

chicken little considers the sky again

16621662 views00 comments00 favs

oh, sure i’m still running around like a heads-up/off/prophet/profit/fit trying to cut off my very own de/(con)instruction and all other sordid a•void•able & available/a-Babel towers of post &toastmodern doom/daze

Dog

16621662 views44 comments00 favs

I’m not the creative type like my friend Bosely, an Irish Setter. I’m a traditionalist. I like to eat exactly at 8:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. I take my bone with me everywhere I go. I will not carry the poop-bag.

They Come To Me At Night

16621662 views1111 comments44 favs

I have an appointment set for the day after next; you said you thought you might be firing blanks and then I feel a kick into my chest—two kicks, three, seven at least—my cat is going crazy at the stinky tom outside the window and the birds are waking, sc

When Not Laughing, Fortuna Only Smiles

16621662 views44 comments55 favs

. . . a visitor from the preceding century would have been aghast to the point of vomiting to behold the regard with which pandas were now held almost universally.

the difference between child-dread and grown-up-dread is the paycheck keeps the tears away

16621662 views66 comments44 favs

the first day of preschool/ my mother walked me down the street/ to a tall building that cut/ like a knife made of bricks/ right into the street,/ an american flag/ sticking straight out/ just above the door.

Do I hear Ten Thousand?

16621662 views99 comments66 favs

I cannot begin to list all the ways this conversation can go downhill from here, so I hang up the phone quietly.

All Seeing

16621662 views22 comments22 favs

Our Core Values define evil as the concealment of information. And those who conceal information are evil.

Short Cuts

16611661 views1111 comments1212 favs

The shop is swarming with little women.

Happy Birthday... Mr. President

16611661 views33 comments11 fav

Her dress swirled around her as she stepped into the ballroom, looking every bit as sultry as her recent Playboy cover...

Why I like My Watches Analog

16611661 views1717 comments99 favs

watch/ the second hand sweep

O'erleaping Ambition

16611661 views33 comments00 favs

“Listen, Mother – you’re my ticket out of this burg and I’m not about to cash it in!”

A Dull Roar

16611661 views22 comments11 fav

The other night while we stood in the kitchen locked in each other's stone silence, he finally said, “You're waiting for something to get you to the other side of grief. But there's no such thing.”

Rwanda Suite: The Congo in Me

16611661 views88 comments88 favs

I scratch a red welt onto the inside of my white knee. The knee itches like crazy. Pain too, down to my bones. The Congo calls.

The Yellow Room

16611661 views66 comments44 favs

...the knives she laid out on the porch before her husband left her, washed and dried, set neatly by copper pennies.