Most read stories

The Sluice

16581658 views00 comments00 favs

Everybody knew Billy Miller. He had messy hair and crooked teeth that he hid behind a thin-lipped smile. He and his friend Jimmy Rodgers, who everyone called Cock on account of his red hair that stuck up like a comb, were inseparable. They liked to ste

Blood

16581658 views44 comments33 favs

We decide not to go to the emergency room

Chapter Two: Oracle

16581658 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.

16581658 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…

A Dream Lay In Wait

16581658 views11 comment11 fav

Roanne hungered. Memory had ruled her forever. Shards really, edged like machetes: daddy, whose fingers had eyes in the dark. Momma, ensconced in the shadows. Inside the church, those pairs of short…

Impotent

16581658 views99 comments66 favs

I tell myself I should have known. You were always absence.

Madd About Tadd

16581658 views00 comments00 favs

Tadd Dameron once described himself as “the most misplaced musician in the business,” and one needn’t call the missing persons bureau to determine that he may have been right.

The Star... an excerpt from The Exile of Gaspar

16581658 views11 comment11 fav

The night is very clear and unusually cold. We are so near to the star that its light banishes the darkness that tries futilely to extinguish it. A small village twinkles in the foothills to our east. The cry of a lost sheep cuts the night like a blade

Free

16571657 views44 comments33 favs

The print is not ideal, it's true.

Mercy Mercy Mercy

16571657 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 . . .

Bye-bye Love

16571657 views11 comment11 fav

Barbie wore only her clear pink heels...

Gluttony

16571657 views2020 comments1414 favs

I become the accumulation/ of appetites

Redline Deadline

16571657 views22 comments11 fav

I ran for the car, heart pounding in my chest, feverish. I jerked the door open and dropped into the seat of the Audi S5. The ignition fired and the car purred to life. I dropped it into gear and hit the gas, tires spinning, gravel spraying. The treads caught on the hot …

Sunday Service

16571657 views1515 comments99 favs

How they all beat the small drum/ of the word within the world

One Nil

16571657 views11 comment11 fav

Each step you take on the pitchEach mile driven downEach closed exit of highway Blocked avenues of importanceBoarded up HammeredNailed shutPeople and places and things You can't get to anymoreThe knife and the needle The black and the…

Egypt is Wisconsin is...

16571657 views77 comments66 favs

Regime is elected officials ignoring constituents, ignoring protestors, ignoring history

Low On the Hog

16571657 views66 comments22 favs

Living lower on the hog than anticipated lower on the hog than previously expected lower on the hog than desired Living on the underside of the hog belly pretty much bouncing on the ground beneath the aforementioned hog belly Living clos

Ruptured, Weeps the Hole: The End (ELECTRIC DELIRIUM 10)

16571657 views22 comments00 favs

She dips a toothpick in ink, running prick over paper, simply to prove herself wrong.

Smiles Etched Into Stone

16571657 views00 comments00 favs

A section of the baseball field that curved inward was filled with clear water. Birds were dipping their feet and the tips of their wings in. The sun set them apart enhancing the ice-sharp oblivion in their eyes. I swore I heard them say "Marry me.

Voices From a Playground

16561656 views66 comments33 favs

"Eye contact is essential as it shows confidence. I walk with purpose and hope that my skirt isn’t too short. "

Strained

16561656 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.

It Seems You've Stumbled Upon My Bildungsroman

16561656 views22 comments22 favs

Why yes I began writing this, my bildungsroman, Who is Mitsy Jackson, in spring, 1974 or thereabouts, and thank you so much for asking.

Battleship

16561656 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,…

What We Talk About When We Talk About Lasagna

16561656 views00 comments00 favs

When we talked about the lasagna, we were, I see now, talking about different things. I.e., I was talking about lasagna, and you were talking about almost everything but. You weren't talking about the dry, burnt noodles or…

Supersymmetric: Almost but not quite

16561656 views66 comments44 favs

As black as his socks with a hole in them she used to sew while watching. The octopus has three hearts you know. Yes, No and Maybe. As black as inkpots, inkjets, as black as typewriter ribbons and the Gutenberg press, as black as the ink of a trillion

Reciprocation

16561656 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,…

Cousin

16561656 views1111 comments88 favs

“The beginning was good. That’s what he likes. The moment when you’re driving in the open air and your hair is flying and your skirt is whipping up around your knees, and he’s smoking, of all things, and happy and looking at you."

Ballpoint Sketches for Banana Peel Poems

16561656 views99 comments1010 favs

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

If I Were a Chemist, Not Now, but Maybe In The 1920s

16561656 views1212 comments99 favs

She said, “I think I’m pregnant,” but I thought that the sidewalk looked cleaner than usual,

High Jinks

16561656 views00 comments00 favs

“Gorgonzolla!” The remnant croaked, his eyes wild as he thrust an open hand in Jaffron's direction. A burst of energy tilted Jaffron's pod on its axis and sent it hurtling backwards...