Most read stories

The Diaphragm

16061606 views22 comments11 fav

They had a deal, she reminded him. If he didn’t want to wear a condom all the time, he’d have to help with her birth control.

Preparation

16061606 views66 comments00 favs

We may not be capable of even trying to appreciate the fact of mortality until we are somewhat older—let's say 18 years old. But, from the age of 18 until we die—and die we will; we know that—we have the opportunity to spend some time thinking abou

North of Center

16051605 views44 comments55 favs

Paulette lived on the east side on Paulette Avenue. Mama dropped me off when we wanted to play Barbies. Her neighborhood was a little green lily pad in a swamp of blight and disrepair. A ghetto moat ringed around those three fancy blocks like a first line of defense,…

The Shopkeeper

16051605 views00 comments00 favs

“There goes that slut Kerri Stanton,” the immense woman behind the counter chuckled to her patron. “Who the hell does she think she is?”

Travis & Jared

16051605 views11 comment00 favs

“Now I see clearly my whole life is pointed in one direction — there never has been any choice for me (Travis Bickle, "Taxi Driver").

A Catalogue of Ways to Die at Sea

16051605 views33 comments33 favs

Quimby’s eyes lit up. “Oh, lads, there must be a thousan’ ways to die at sea! I’ve made th’ Atlantic passage a good many time; lemme recount some manners of death I’ve witnessed with mine own eyes.”

Robert B. Parker we’ll miss you.

16051605 views22 comments00 favs

Summer nights in Boston, old cast iron streetlights.

Human Resources

16051605 views44 comments55 favs

Lawrence Light had two degrees: business and theology. I liked the clean font he chose for his resume. At the interview, his face was open. His eyes were bright.

White girl/boy angst

16051605 views33 comments11 fav

I’m secretly hoping for a huge bouquet, a fruit basket, a pickle jar of urine in a lunch bag on my doorstep, even.

The Assistant

16051605 views66 comments33 favs

The Assistant is lost again in a grid city. Again she feels disconnected from the world. Where she is the sound has been switched off.

Key Tone Deficiency

16051605 views1212 comments1111 favs

Beware superfluous color

Shutter

16041604 views11 comment11 fav

Background foreground life in the middle

Fanmail to Ellen Page

16041604 views00 comments00 favs

You and I will never meet. You will never even know I existed. Even in dreams you will never imagine me. Someone told me once that your sleeping mind cannot conjure up new faces. It just spits out all the ones you’ve ever seen and that’s it. That’s it.

Tour Guide

16041604 views11 comment00 favs

“It is not your shoes the Americans complained about!” Roberto yelled, sitting behind his desk, cigar smoke curling around his purple face. “It is your UNDERWEAR!”

Send

16041604 views55 comments22 favs

Send me a secret story in a song just for me

Everything You've Got

16041604 views66 comments55 favs

I reach into my pocket for my keys and discover the cough drops Iput there a week ago have melted. Now my fingers are sticky. And I don’t have my keys.

When technology fails

16041604 views33 comments00 favs

But Jeffrey was flabbergasted and couldn’t explain to the officer why he was speeding. All he could manage to get out as an attack of Tourette syndrome hit were nasty, flamboyant obscenities. The Alabama state trooper wasn’t amused.

Advice For Aspiring Writers

16041604 views55 comments44 favs

Published writers will tell you that the most important thing you can do as a beginning writer is to know your markets! So this month, we'll talk about two of the markets open to you and your riveting but as yet unpublished prose -- Fling Magazine and Clubhouse…

Rubber-Band Requiem

16041604 views77 comments66 favs

“Now we lay you in your grave There was no way you could be saved You hate our lord Jesus and he can tell Which is why you will burn in hell.”

Facing Mecca

16041604 views44 comments22 favs

I was raised in a big city in the slow South. I know a little about cross cultural dining and where Delta Blues collides with Sly Stone, Al Green, and Zeppelin. Dirty rice in the Dirty South. Fried chicken, collards, and pintos. Fried velveeta…

Wattle and Daub - 3

16041604 views1010 comments55 favs

Walter met Danial at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. They didn't have much in common at first, other than AA, with Walter on the recovery side of treatment and Danial reluctantly just beginning.

Castor and Pollux

16041604 views00 comments00 favs

Over the stained fence the spectres flew and that is where the rain was turning colder and colder in the time when the trees had become mostly bare.

Don’t Ask Me to Collaborate

16041604 views1111 comments77 favs

Except with the language I was born to./ Occasionally, with painters and collagists-// dead now, typically- who can’t voice/ opposition to my misappropriations.

Natural Histories I

16041604 views44 comments22 favs

I feel about the universe/ as Abrahamics are supposed/ to feel about their Yahweh, /their God, and their Allah:/ I am in fear, I am in awe, /I am in love.

Sway

16041604 views55 comments55 favs

It is said that lovers find lips in the dark through secret brain circuitry.

The Jade Rabbit, Chapter One

16041604 views11 comment00 favs

Even when the sun is gone and things get dark, usually the moon comes to reflect some light of hope until a new dawn can emerge

The Hour of the Wolf

16041604 views77 comments55 favs

Beneath an opal moon, the open field and wilderness across it look immersed in varying shades of blue. A strong night howler blows across a little girl's face as she walks the field as if in a trance; her whole visage framed against the backdrop of this very act …

Valhalla After Dark

16041604 views22 comments00 favs

In traffic I cry bloody murder, but my bloodlust subsides once I'm in Valhalla. Chip Whitehead wants to see me on the 22nd floor before I start my shift. Charlie and the other suits have been looking at me funny since I sent Chip a memo suggesting the recession…

The Stars in Illinois

16041604 views00 comments00 favs

Only early June, but the heat feels like August. Eleanor and Shelby sit on the front steps of the old Victorian-style house in downtown Los Angeles, drinking homemade margaritas and watching the daylight drain away to dusk. Shelby slaps a mosquito away fr

The Caganer

16031603 views00 comments00 favs

Jaume jumped up from the bar, a wide smile across his face. He hugged his old friend and planted a kiss on his wife's cheeks. He was buzzing from the chance encounter, marveling how life had brought them together after all these years. There had to be a r