Most read stories

February 16, 2006

14381438 views33 comments22 favs

When we arriveand are met by strange friendsstrange like the fog on the redreed mudflatsthat span the low tide around Incheon -When we arrivecarrying so much we will not needlike the bus they hire to take us through the darksix people to fill so much more space - When…

I-35W

14381438 views55 comments55 favs

my world cracked

I Was a Cat Once

14381438 views33 comments00 favs

This is a 50-word story.

I May be Dried Up -- But I can Make You Breakfast in the Morning

14381438 views44 comments22 favs

Our dinner was over and we regretfully had to leave the restaurant. She leaves with enough shopping money for a few weeks. He, getting the rough end of the deal, has charged more money to his credit card at 19% plus cash withdrawal fees. So I ask myself

Should Have Gotten Delivery Instead

14381438 views33 comments11 fav

My mind raced at the endless possibilities one could die while driving to get a pizza.

Don't move

14381438 views1010 comments77 favs

The tech turns off the music. The capsule blares. I am in Jurassic Park with Sam Neill. I am Timmy, descending the electrified fence, almost toast. I am Karen Silkwood, a deer in the headlights, then showering off plutonium. A garbage truck is compacting

Anthrax

14381438 views22 comments22 favs

Exhausted, weak from the struggle against the personal gift of terrorism delivered by her ex-boyfriend, she died for a few minutes.

A Skeptic’s Faith in Four Parts

14371437 views1515 comments1111 favs

The universe will fuck you over in the end./ That’s what it does, what it’s good at—

Familiar Things

14371437 views99 comments77 favs

After lunch I left my office and trickled along like a slow leak, a notch above meandering; gravity had become a lateral force that pulled me forward.

Hellgate

14371437 views55 comments33 favs

Either it was rescue--if the customer was alive to be found--or recovery, the term for bringing out the dead.

Five Million Yen: Chapter 18

14371437 views00 comments00 favs

Detective-Sergeant Claude Mulvihill was seasick. He was in a New York City Harbor Police boat in the East River headed towards the George Washington Bridge. There was a good chop in the harbor, which became worse when the Police Boat reached the Battery.

2001, What I Wanted

14371437 views1010 comments44 favs

feet that would run until their soles were pages of Gideon’s Bibles, worn too thin to touch

All Fall Down

14371437 views1010 comments99 favs

He just up and dropped dead one day, Charles said. Pretty tough on Karen, I opined. Charles looked the other way.

The Sound of Human Lives

14371437 views55 comments00 favs

The room smelled of an old rank basement. Boys and girls of all ages crowded the stage. The room was dark with only a few lights that hung from above keeping the crowd dark and silhouetting Chris on drums.

Acrobats

14371437 views11 comment22 favs

What a beautiful day it was, what a wonderful day to lose one's mind. This is what you think going into it, that it is all a wonderful dream come true, and sure I'll have my hands full, but at the end of the day it will be worth something. If I hang in long enough,…

Hollywood Stars

14371437 views33 comments11 fav

Your Uncle Howard and I listened to Dutch Reagan re broadcast big league baseball on WHO Radio when we were little. He'd call the play action off the wire complete with sound effects. The son of a bitch turned out to be a Republican...

The Discovery of Infinity

14371437 views66 comments55 favs

Infinity occurs as an afterthought, for discoverers like Columbus as for countries like America.

Three Micros

14371437 views1515 comments1313 favs

I asked the hospice nurse about maggots.

Wishing for the Shadow of a Perfect Cube

14371437 views1717 comments99 favs

Words darken with smut and irony over time.

Remembering Ginsberg

14361436 views33 comments22 favs

Remembering Ginsberg who howled through just about everybody's idea of the real weirdo poet

On the Road

14361436 views1616 comments88 favs

how did they not know

Vain Boasts and Confessions in Descending Mode

14361436 views77 comments33 favs

My, but how that girl loved to defenestrate! I shall ever be grateful for my obstinacy with never living more than a single story above ground level.

fish gut buckets

14361436 views22 comments00 favs

The pier stretched out by where sharks came and men waited with beautiful dirty buckets that held strange and dangerous things, buckets with fish guts, buckets with blood, with character, buckets like prophets or a gritty desert walking saviour like Chris

Arrivals

14361436 views33 comments11 fav

The poppers, the Viagra, the chorizo – all had been ordered and all had arrived.

The White Dogs Of West Emerald Street

14361436 views77 comments77 favs

I wondered if Mr. Slane even knew/ how many dogs he owned

Route 346

14361436 views11 comment11 fav

Route 346 is the way Pop drove to Troy long after everybody else took Route 2. Today Charlie and I drive in the opposite direction. Back then, Pop drove us to Troy on Route 346 on Sunday afternoons with the car windows…

The Nude Pianist: A Novel: Chapter 24

14361436 views88 comments55 favs

When Frank entered Michiko’s apartment, Michiko was not there.

Can Bone-Munching Zombie Worms Help Fight Childhood Obesity?

14361436 views11 comment11 fav

President Kennedy’s national physical fitness program tried to reverse the incoming tide of obesity, but for many it was too late.

The Way Home

14361436 views44 comments33 favs

Her back turned, she wanders off searching for the way home wringing her hands, trying to think, but thoughts evade her.

O Where Did Our Funny Go?

14361436 views66 comments55 favs

What a nation! First we lost our money Now we’ve lost our funny