Most read stories

Awakening

16041604 views00 comments00 favs

I was awakened by a disturbing dream. He was no longer with me and I felt afraid. Everything was cloudy, almost blurry. I couldn't see much in front of me, but I knew for sure he wasn't there with me. Then he said the words I feared the most “I don't love you.…

Placeholders

16041604 views44 comments33 favs

Everyone falls,

$5 K a Day

16041604 views77 comments44 favs

We are all in big trouble. Here's some fiction to let your soul experience the beast.

Things I Learned But No Longer Believe

16031603 views1717 comments99 favs

Shakespeare had red hair / Van Gogh never painted a nude

Research Notes - Single Stroke Seven

16031603 views44 comments33 favs

It is within my nature, and many others I know, to cling to what’s consistent and certain: the battles fought in the war for survival and the organic camaraderie borne in the trenches. Sometimes the quest and the people we commiserate with along the way

Strained

16031603 views99 comments88 favs

She wonders if he will do the dishes. He said that he would, but that doesn’t mean anything. He said he would do them last week, said he would save money, said he would come home last night. He didn’t do any of those things, either.

I Am the Poetic Kiss of Death

16031603 views66 comments33 favs

My poems have appeared in four different publications; three have died shortly after they ran my stuff. Coincidence, or something more sinister?

Wrinkles, Men and Shades of Gray

16031603 views55 comments22 favs

You stand in the mirror. You see yourself. You stand sideways; your profile is always your best. You tuck in your stomach, you stick out your ass but it's the same. You stand face front. You shiver. The mirror adds weight to your already sagging breasts, the wrinkles…

Chapter Two: Oracle

16031603 views88 comments77 favs

The first thing I saw was a sandal, but it didn't exactly look priestly. It was golden and glowing, and the foot it was strapped to had red painted nails. The straps wrapped around her ankles, and up her slender leg, tied off in a bow below the knee.

You Don’t Know Jack.

16031603 views1515 comments88 favs

Susan said since her divorce three years ago there have been too many Jacks in her life. Seven, if she counted that older guy. She knew that now. Too many. It was the name and little else that drew her to men. She told me the name alone was like Pavlov's bell. It…

Reciprocation

16031603 views33 comments11 fav

"I have a prehensile tongue," he said matter-of-factly. "I know how to make you feel good." Such confidence, I say. Prove it.We're sitting on the couch, watching a movie, but not paying attention to it. We sit side-by-side, my leaning into him, and his arm is around me,…

Spy vs. Park

16031603 views33 comments33 favs

Things looked way too normal to be normal. The cold, gliding black eyed swans never once straying far from each other's wake, the cute blue jeaned lovers everyone secretly watched carefully picking their trickling way over small odd rocks and…

The Celebrity

16031603 views88 comments99 favs

Mr. Blumberg and I sat side by side on a small couch in the family room. He was watching a football game on TV.

Ballpoint Sketches for Banana Peel Poems

16031603 views99 comments1010 favs

I wanna make banana peel poems-- slippery little booby traps

A Word About Everything

16031603 views88 comments44 favs

I remember having a beer once And feeling like a minor god And I know in some lie you told Your life began making sense And I also know that the mind likes logic But the heart loves chaos I just hope flies land on the butter of your soul

Wild Dreams of Reality, 13

16031603 views00 comments00 favs

At 7:30 that evening my brother knocked on Parker's front door. When I went to let him in, sweat was running off Darrell's head like he'd been hit by a water balloon. The air was absolutely unmoving, and there was the smell of tar from the asphalt in th

Winter's Presence 2010

16031603 views44 comments00 favs

A short triangular plastic shovels into the/White plastic container filled with topaz crystal-like/Salt granulars. Scratchy sandy sounds echo.

1970

16021602 views88 comments88 favs

deformed or retarded

She Waited for the other Shoe to Drop

16021602 views44 comments44 favs

She Waited for the other Shoe to Drop

Mercy Mercy Mercy

16021602 views1717 comments88 favs

When I was young and self-born in religion my aunts, uninterested in being washed in the Blood of Christ, called me Preacher Boy. I didn't pay them any attention. It was fine by me, I said, if they wanted to sit around and paint their toenails . . .

The Rug

16021602 views88 comments22 favs

Marge bought the rug on-line.

Write power

16021602 views44 comments33 favs

Write power like a purring kitten eyes wide without an idea of exactly how small he is.

Hello Cheryl

16021602 views00 comments00 favs

“Hello, Cheryl” the voice on the other end of the phone replied. It was strong but raspy, yet quiet and controlled. The fellow sounded like he had a frog in his throat. “How do you know my name?” she asked. “I know a lot of things about y

Consider the Living

16021602 views77 comments44 favs

we're not at war / with the world. We have papers.

Above the River's Edge

16021602 views22 comments00 favs

On the plains there are no cliffs, no vast mountain ranges to persuade us that we were somewhere above the world. Yearning to escape the pull of the Earth was the big dream of a plains boy…

Battleship

16021602 views33 comments33 favs

You compare the brightly-colored wires sprouting from the bandage wrapped around your stepson's head to a bouquet of flowers. The tech sits in a chair next to Brett's hospital bed and holds up line drawings of common objects: cats, boats, skyscrapers,…

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte

16021602 views00 comments00 favs

A woman is fishing in the Seine at the far left of the painting, while time is suspended and light remains. One man plays a trumpet. A half dozen people sit or walk under parasols. Couples stroll and children run or sit or stand beside their p

Party w/Your Parents' Siblings

16021602 views11 comment11 fav

Her mother sighed, fingering the faux-pearls around her neck. Barbara's neck tensed, almost as though the hair on the back of it would stand up: Here comes a platitude . . .

Bearing Witness

16021602 views1010 comments44 favs

I hold them to the light...

White Room Trials

16021602 views22 comments22 favs

November 24th-- Subject began to chew the flesh of his forearms. Researchers considered interfering but decided against it because subject was only bleeding slightly.