Most read stories

Slipstream

11921192 views1010 comments77 favs

Moments before they had been holding hands, but when they turned the corner and she told him she did not want to go down the dark path he had turned also, into someone she did not recognize and could not understand.

The Search

11911191 views55 comments44 favs

“Sixty-seven responses!” Al Edelstein announces at the first meeting of the search committee. It has been just two weeks since Rabbi Feldman dropped dead of a heart attack and just a week since the congregation ran the ad: “Help Wanted: Orthodox Rabbi. Im

The Karaoke Girls

11911191 views33 comments33 favs

The Karaoke Girls are not appreciated. Not nearly enough and not often enough.

The First Time

11911191 views55 comments22 favs

Do you remember who I am yet? I remember the first time you made love to me. It appears I was one of the lucky ones … it wasn’t in a car, it wasn’t in your Dad’s boat, underwater, or any other weird place you've written about. It was actual

Or

11911191 views1515 comments88 favs

I paid the doctor / You paid the doctor

Mai Tai Daze

11911191 views22 comments00 favs

Some people hate Waikiki. Not me. Most hotels had lounges with live music, either inside or around the pool. Evenings were spent bar hopping up and down the strip, Kalakaua Avenue. The bars stayed open till 4:00 a.m. It was safe to walk…

Cruelty

11911191 views1010 comments99 favs

...when they decided to teach her a lesson, it was with particular vigor and vitriol...

The Club

11911191 views00 comments00 favs

Even the stinging warmth of the Grey Goose wasn’t fun without Lisa whispering into his ear, telling him stupid little confessions that he would recite to her in singsong the day after. And she would beat her small fists against his chest solemnly with a

drinking buddies

11911191 views66 comments00 favs

Tonight, Bukowski and I drink together.

The Rest of the Story of Mom

11911191 views77 comments44 favs

Easing her hand with her other hand.

The Broken Lily

11911191 views22 comments00 favs

“What was that about?” Keiko asked as she gingerly separated the lily from the wrapping and the baby's breath and examined the flower. Keiko unbound the lily and noticed that the stem seemed strong. The flower no longer needed the support of the wire, and

Chalk, Fish and Monkey

11911191 views22 comments11 fav

She picked the fish out of the box leaving a pool of mucus and blood slowly congealing on the shelf and dripped it toward the kitchen table. Outside the wind lashed the tops of the poplar trees together and rain sprayed from the barn roof opposite.

Silent Season

11911191 views55 comments22 favs

we are tired, you and I.

Dithyrambic

11911191 views1515 comments88 favs

What's that snitch doin' here?

Intangible Vectors of Influence (from "Emergency: Three Romances")

11911191 views11 comment00 favs

The young cop says, “Sorry ma’am, you’ll have to wait.” In the strobing red-blue glare he looks like a teenager. Melissa wonders if Tony had looked so young when he started, all those years ago.

An Irrational Poem

11911191 views22 comments11 fav

Hollywood is the land of the slow no.

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

11911191 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.

Balconies

11911191 views77 comments11 fav

In a few brief moments the entire sky became full of this wetness and greyed to the point of almost blackening, and it was a Sunday morning, and the man thought that thoughts were strange things, because he had a piercing epiphany that there was no God..

Air Conditioning Bill

11911191 views66 comments77 favs

The last night, I shivered in bed until three a.m., the blankets wouldn’t work, or the socks, or my tears, but I reassured my heart that my next love would be warmer. 
He was. 
And our air conditioning bill was so high we could’t afford it.

Childish

11911191 views00 comments00 favs

woke up to the sound of a diesel looked out the window to see i’m not home outta bed to see if you had called not a damn thing on my phone

Hard-to-Reach Places

11911191 views1212 comments00 favs

Jody wakes some days with pieces missing.

Facsimile in Boots

11901190 views22 comments22 favs

There she is. A paper doll of me. The dress, the lilt, the self-hatred. The crowd thins and swells in want of a scene. Conversations begin, pretend, then halt. My gin and tonic sweats into my hand and I lick at the…

Beyond Steps that Falter

11901190 views1111 comments66 favs

I might wish I was anything including some dust on the shelf where maybe I might blow away unseen like the coming of rust

Hail to the Pres: Celebrating Lester Young's Birthday

11901190 views33 comments11 fav

At a time when jazz had its share of royalty–kings, dukes, and counts–Young was democratically elected the President by an aristocratic vote of one; the best jazz singer alive, his sometime lover Billie Holiday.

Fear in a Handful of Dust

11901190 views99 comments55 favs

I fear my personal information travels the World Wide Web/ and mad Ukrainians will steal my name and wealth./ I fear the fiscal cliff and raising the ceiling on national debt./ I fear a death by taxes.

We'll Always Have Paris

11901190 views33 comments11 fav

“Tonight’s news begins with a Stone’s Throw exclusive. Intimate friends of hotel heiress Paris Hilton have confided that the talent-starved celebrity has agreed to marry Quaker Bob, longtime spokesperson and package icon for Quaker Oats cereal.

Bus

11901190 views55 comments44 favs

You can’t take a chandelier on an emergency dash across a nuclear desert.

The Agreement

11901190 views99 comments99 favs

Our Irish tradition is rich in Yeats, drenched in Bushmills.

The Small Blue House

11901190 views55 comments44 favs

She allowed him to wash her hair. Touching it in a wet state, running his hands through it in a soapy state, wringing the water out when he was finished—he was ecstatic.

Filth and Splendor: A Love Story

11901190 views00 comments00 favs

Solomon just makes people leak. Literally.