Most read stories

Man Writing Story With Ears Plugged About Painter Who Only Hears in Color; Black Ink, 2002

13631363 views00 comments00 favs

Ready, here we go.

Psychological Profile for "Joe"

13631363 views22 comments11 fav

He boasts of administering regular beatings to his wife and claims that she enjoyed it.

Sam in Fragments

13631363 views66 comments44 favs

He injected her with a sedative to keep her still. He projected himself into her narcotic dream, a small bar with tango playing from a jukebox. They were dancing.

Summerset Bangs from Oldtown

13631363 views33 comments00 favs

blackberry pie and huckleberry wine and litte Maria with her summerset bangs

Inheritance

13631363 views44 comments44 favs

My father died. I took his clothes.

Sugar

13631363 views00 comments11 fav

At first we thought we could get by using honey so we all stormed the SuperMart and cleaned the shelves out of Suzie Bee Honey. First the jars and then the squeeze bottles, but it wasn't the same. Then Mary Sue yelled out “How about brown sugar?”…

Hanging By A Moment

13631363 views44 comments11 fav

It's come down to this: you're a grown man afraid to face his own son. For the past few years there has been tension;…

The Twenty Minute War

13631363 views11 comment11 fav

Maybe there was no truth. Things had become so strange that sometimes Jannsun suspected that everything had already happened and we were just toying with selective memory.

Accuracy

13621362 views1515 comments88 favs

The form I completed yesterday filled out several attachments, including one for passive business loss. I did not believe I had incurred business loss, just that I was freelancing part-time.

Acclimation

13621362 views44 comments22 favs

Before I grew used to it I would wake to the sound of the Amtrak whistle echoing down along the tracks behind our trailer park and wonder who was hurtling where through the dark night and across this wide Illinois prairie

Spring Miscellany

13621362 views88 comments66 favs

Because we are exceptional,/ our 3000 dead in New York/ exceeds in impact that of 75,000/ burned at Nagasaki,

Destiny Narrowly Avoided

13621362 views44 comments00 favs

Then it started extruding tendrils and tying them all into intricate knots.

You Write Books?

13621362 views77 comments66 favs

“Somebody told me you write books.”

There is no heartbeat, Mrs Stirling.

13621362 views44 comments55 favs

I lost a baby two years ago. At 8.5 weeks after seeing her heart beat. I haven't been able to talk about it, but I can write about it. My throat cracks and splinters when I begin to form a thought or word or phrase. I took such great care when…

Neil Gaiman

13621362 views22 comments00 favs

“Tell me a story,” he said, toying with his top hat, running his fingers along its brim.

Fictionaut or Not? Write On.

13621362 views99 comments11 fav

Okay, I'm here; I'm participating. Enjoying the back & forth with other writers. Waiting for penises and fetuses to move down the "Most Recent" list, but working around them. Well, that's kind of unintentionally visual.This essay, like many other reads on here, is…

The Blocked Toxin

13621362 views88 comments22 favs

Listen to chickadees. Join / LinkedIn.

The Darwin Awards

13621362 views66 comments55 favs

"People are stupid. They've always been stupid. But these days...." His voice trailed off. "Dumb and dumber, huh?" the Boss asked. Peter nodded.

The Night Before School Starts

13621362 views1010 comments88 favs

A familiar ritual by now...

November Odds

13621362 views1313 comments88 favs

The stars align against us. Lines of force/ collaborate to push us off the edge/ into the dark abyss we’ve joked about.

Lost Clouds

13621362 views99 comments77 favs

This is a nice illusion, here with you. The world Is meant to fill your eyes. You remind me of Everything right now. This is a nice illusion, here with You. It's all morning light. The wind playing with your Hair lifts my spirits, too. Seagulls…

Aurora Borealis

13611361 views99 comments55 favs

I recalled the one night stand I'd had with the girl one balmy summer night in Minneapolis. We lay on my bed in the moonlight, and I touched the nipples of her tiny breasts with the thumb and pinkie of one hand.

The Whole Deal with the 'Willamette's Weak-Links'

13611361 views11 comment00 favs

[My baloney has a first name: it's Oh, Ess, Cee, Ay -- shit! I forget the rest! Can we start over?]

Gipetto's Sin

13611361 views22 comments00 favs

The boy grew frightened when his grainy wooden skin began to melt, every fiber humming and softening.

Eternal Return

13611361 views66 comments55 favs

When I slip through the seams I return to the same place.

When The Conversation Ends

13611361 views22 comments11 fav

It was a strange mood, unfamiliar, not one of her usual “I'm busy wrestling with my personal demons” type of moods. She'd been steeped in it all day and I, like a shipwrecked victim reaching out for any piece of flotsam…

The Lincoln Effect

13611361 views33 comments22 favs

Ty speed-walked down the long ass tunnel that connected his “A” train to the NJ Transit bus, which would take him across the bridge, where he'd splurge for a cab to take him home.

Boxes

13611361 views22 comments11 fav

His voice isn't familiar but his words are. He says he knows we haven't spoken in years and apologizes for it. I can hear him pacing on the other end of the line, tapping things and then a shriek of glass shattering. Really, I tell him, no need to…

My Uncle's Last Day in Hospice

13611361 views77 comments88 favs

In and out of morphine dreams, he flies through the unfinished roof of Illinois sky. Below, matchbox-sized farm machines. A silo becomes his father's thermos, the silver-capped tower from which he stole sips at ten, his first secret. Back …

ASH WEDNESDAY

13611361 views11 comment11 fav

Everybody knew the McDonald’s at the Waterfront was selling theraflu stamp bags, and I guess I’d heard how bad it was for you—they’d had reports of dumbasses ODing on channel 2, 4, and 11—but it was a lot stronger than regular heroin and a lot cheaper...