Most read stories

Aurora Borealis

15171517 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.

Those Things

15171517 views33 comments33 favs

For me, it was that kind of moment. I got to come back. I had been here before and now, well now, I could come back. I had a chance to do it all again, bigger, better and well, just better. I hoped I could remember all that I learned the first time.

Global Arms

15171517 views1010 comments22 favs

~(+)~

What's that on your glasses?

15171517 views33 comments33 favs

The shit just doesn't want to come off.

Myself Today

15171517 views22 comments22 favs

Suddenly I'm not feeling it anymore. / Poetry has become insufficient. / I can't do it like I used to.

As Anti-Vegan Bias Spreads, SaladShooters Fight Back

15171517 views00 comments00 favs

The Vegan Defense League is a vigilante group formed to fill the gap left by local law enforcement, who jam the parking lot a mile down the road at a donut shop. “By the time the cops finish their coffee and chocolate frosted donuts, we could be dead.”

R.I.P. Ann Bogle

15171517 views1717 comments1010 favs

It is with great sadness I announce the passing of Ann Bogle on February 28, 2023 after a brief illness. Ann was longtime contributor and editor of these pages and a champion of small press and emerging writers.I knew Ann since the late 1970's when she was an undergraduate…

You're Breathing My Relapse

15171517 views11 comment22 favs

I was an alcoholic for ten years, starting in my early twenties and continuing into my thirties. Then finally, after many attempts, I got myself straightened out. My son's birth finally did it for me. It wasn't like a switch flipped in the delivery room…

A Requiem For The Heavyweights

15171517 views44 comments33 favs

Breathe a stench of Eton musk...

ALL THE REPORTERS WANT WAR

15171517 views77 comments33 favs

The countdown is on and daily the propaganda gets more and more aggravating It appears at times that the news media dictate and orchestrate more that just report on events of diplomatic shock. A huge effort has gone in to covering this coming war and it…

The Winter's Too Warm for Bears to Sleep

15171517 views88 comments77 favs

The winter’s too warm for the bears to sleep, and they get up in the middle of the night with insomnia and wander about the streets in their pajamas, knocking over garbage cans, looking for a midnight snack of some kind. They’re getting kind o

Wounds

15171517 views1010 comments44 favs

Every day, a fresh new/ strain of Hell reveals itself

Road Work '92

15171517 views22 comments11 fav

This is how she does it: Forward………… ...Reverse..........…….....Forward..........……...Reverse

The Poisoning

15171517 views1111 comments99 favs

The Poisoning I used to call my dad Serpico. Thirty years on the police force, and though a respected officer, he never fit in. He never had beers with the guys at the end of a shift or engaged in the more lewd locker room talk. None of the other cops were privy to which…

Five Million Yen: Chapter 40

15161516 views22 comments11 fav

Ben was dreaming of sex with Claudia. But, in his dream, he could hear Dan Arris calling his name and pounding on a door. The fear of Dan Arris was pushing out the delights of Claudia.

Snow

15161516 views77 comments11 fav

She talks about window treatments, how the place is maybe too much for one. Wants me to know she’s not much of a cook, and wants me to smell what’s in her oven and compliment her cooking anyway.

The Judge's Wife Part 9

15161516 views88 comments44 favs

Suddenly something clicked.

Death by Dinner

15161516 views22 comments00 favs

I can't believe it's Frankie, but there he is at a table on the far side, just in front of the big picture window. I hold the menu close to my face and peek again over the top, watching as he reaches under the white linen tablecloth to plant…

Lovelandtown Tavern

15161516 views44 comments44 favs

James Hubert III sat at the bar. It was late. His wife and kids were long in bed and he knew he should be, too. But with the Lovelandtown lift bridge stuck in mid-air, a drink beckoned him. He sat next to Vince DeSantos, a small, stout man, with a bowling

In The Wake

15161516 views55 comments33 favs

Any form of exertion would defile what we are trying to do

Nose

15161516 views1111 comments88 favs

At the conference her boss showed off his knowledge of wines.

Bookstore Reading, Telegraph Ave, Berkeley

15161516 views55 comments55 favs

There’s someone in the audience who is immolating himself Cutting his own leg over and over with a pen knife And groaning: “Oh God, oh God” And all I can think from up at the podium is This guy must absolutely hate these poems I am reading

The Nude Pianist: A Novel: Chapter 34

15161516 views55 comments22 favs

—Now that’s a hell-of-a-painting, Frank, he said. Those colors are engaged in warfare. How the hell did you do that?

Gossip

15161516 views1818 comments1616 favs

Gossip Betty Martini divorces husbands when they least expect it. On a seeming whim, she pays a visit to dear Arnold, who keeps her papers handy in his top desk drawer. She initials here and there, signs with a…

Mr. Pickle and Mr. Peet

15161516 views99 comments55 favs

We got a sandwich at Mr. Pickle's, but they cut the sandwich in the plastic. Plastic wrap.

The Fourth Prague Defenestration: 10

15161516 views33 comments44 favs

But the restaurants put pig in every little dish. You couldn't eat there without encountering some portion of pig. It was in everything, including the cabbage. Who puts pig in the cabbage? I'm asking you. And in the dumplings too. For God's sake, give it

I Ask You, Erin Burnett...is it fair?

15161516 views22 comments22 favs

In the privacy of a booth?

MASS OF TANGLES

15161516 views11 comment00 favs

I leapt up to retaliate when the clang of a distant door quieted my retesance. Shit, why am I so popular? I guess it was my turn to be thrown around like the guy in the Hotdog suit on the corner... Don't shoot the "Hotdog" guy... Please, please don't

Hope's Amanuensis

15161516 views66 comments55 favs

I was low on carburetor / oxygen and my fraud protection / had just expired.

Arcana Magi Memorial Vol.6 - c.3

15151515 views00 comments00 favs

Mother’s eyes stared outward in a trance, on her throne, visualizing the world Azure made. Though it was right before her, she could not reach it.