Most read stories

Thursday at the Office

15931593 views11 comment22 favs

David looked at the plaque sitting on top of his computer monitor and wondered if he’d even touched it since he’d placed it there. He picked it up and brushed off six years’ worth of dust into the wastebasket on top of the mustard-stained sandwich wrappe

Whirl

15931593 views1212 comments1111 favs

Wanna,wanna, whoop de loop. Hold my baby, kiss my mom, dance the way I used to do. Desktops, blacktops, cut and paste, speed down hills, learn the rules, Sister Saint Marion, married to Christ. Sixteen, life-green, pink tights, Swan Lake, an…

She Called My Poem Nice

15931593 views33 comments22 favs

“There is no future in art, you will not change lives with flowery words. Please don’t rock the boat”

BUNGEE

15931593 views88 comments66 favs

The drop is like a hangman's drop, an executioner's, but farther and longer, perhaps three or four seconds.

How (not) to Cheat

15931593 views33 comments22 favs

...I’m honest enough to know that fucking around has never been accidental or unplanned. Every time I did it, even in the rock bottom throes of esteem, sobriety, and life, yes, even on the brink of suicide, I knew exactly what I was doing...

Bring on the Drones!

15931593 views99 comments77 favs

Never mind that they cost millions per year just to amuse the monkey bone in us all or that they spew pollution or that their only real purpose is murder. They are justified by skill and thrill.

Hardware Store Tour

15931593 views1515 comments1010 favs

The Plaza had a chess-board floor, green wood booths, and the lights stayed up. I might be combining a memory of Fitzie's in Binghamton. The Plaza felt like a preppy soda fountain with beer.

The Bird King's Eggs

15931593 views22 comments22 favs

1The Bird King's eggs are subatomic particles created serendipitously by a sneeze in a quantum physicist's dream.Occupying a space between existence and nothingness, reason and madness, broccoli and…

IT BURNS

15931593 views11 comment00 favs

“Again,” Danny said, and I hit him with everything I had until I was out of breath and it was his turn to hit me. We did this three, four, five days in a row, took the weekend to admire our bruises and heal a little, and then on Monday we were back up th

Anthropometamorphism

15921592 views1010 comments77 favs

I have known a head become / a callus, matriculate, stop / shaving, move to Vegas

Kingfish

15921592 views22 comments00 favs

Time stole you from underneath the goldendock. Writhing there, slick as a flapping tongue;lips gored, red, whose gaping could embolden weak hands behind the blazing buck blade, long ago pierced in your summer quietus, beneath the soft shade of a tackle box, as the…

The Cenataur (Part 1)

15921592 views11 comment11 fav

Love needs loathing like cold weather needs warm clothing. And all truths, untruths and part truths need a place to live when a mind gets too sardine-packed with information and cynicism... Some say there was a time when the light was brighter, the ear

Bait Shop

15921592 views1111 comments1010 favs

They wanted to go fresh water fishing, so I had to buy worms. None there in the saltwater town. Drove about 10 miles over the long bridge to cross the bay. I'd been there before. Walked in and a crusty, little skinny man got up from his chair. He: Watcha need? Me: Fresh…

Luce

15921592 views22 comments11 fav

Lucy shrugs into the corner of the train's seat. She envelopes her IPod in both hands as if she's praying or holding a conch shell: safe, secure like when she visited a Morcombe beach in the school holidays. The only giveaway's the white headphone cord.

At the Cafe

15921592 views77 comments77 favs

The light on his face from a lamp, felt hat with a black band scrunched down, the light on his face as though thrown there, the nose creating a strong shadow, with dark, straight eyebrows under the hat, red and orange beard. Leaning forwar

Thumbing For a Ride

15921592 views1010 comments66 favs

Here comes my speed dealer he's riding shotgun in the open

Corkscrewing.

15911591 views11 comment22 favs

[SOME PEOPLE ARE BETTER THAN OTHERS.]

Dusty Winnemucca Road

15911591 views1111 comments77 favs

respect your parents. or not. stay put. or not. finish school. or not. get married. or not. stay married. or not.

Still

15911591 views33 comments22 favs

Later

Cost

15911591 views88 comments44 favs

I rifled through the bedside table until I found dirty magazines

If You Want To Work At Club Arseni

15911591 views55 comments55 favs

I hev my girls shave.

Unknown Brothers

15911591 views00 comments00 favs

His name is Rick Reynolds. His name is Steve Redford.

I'm Never Going Home

15911591 views66 comments44 favs

After the ship stopped shaking, the angry flashes of warning lights discontinued, a few people could be heard sobbing or whispering prayers.

Kilz

15911591 views1111 comments77 favs

He flipped through a book of poems Ani’d given me. Nothing fell out so he tore it in two. I said his mama must notta read to this one and one of the older cops laughed and he hit me.

A Change in Plan

15911591 views1313 comments1212 favs

Times were tough back then. Just a few jobs. This was in the late thirties. It's the story of how Albert hooked up with Iris. Their unlikely meeting took place when they met out on the Highway 61 right-of-way just outside of Natchez, Mississippi, each trying to hitch…

Absinthe

15911591 views33 comments33 favs

In a dazzle of emerald softness, it flew out into the breeze wanting for the red apple in the tree just outside my window. The power had gone out, spare change to total meltdown, and the air inside was stifling, thick with mind-numbing languor and mosquitoes. So I…

The Nude Pianist: A Novel: Chapter 15

15911591 views55 comments33 favs

—Jesus, a snoring cat. No wonder Alex put this cat outside.

Privileged

15911591 views88 comments88 favs

I could hide away in this tower But I am Rapunzel And I will let down my hair

Arcana Magi Zero Arc 2 - c.1

15901590 views00 comments00 favs

Alysia grabbed her luggage and rolled it behind her. Looking up at the sky, it was nighttime. She could see the crescent moon above, adding to the darkness.

Neural

15901590 views66 comments66 favs

Then I am wearing a brightly colored raincoat while sitting on a deck among hundreds of tiny glowing spores