Most read stories

Herd

15101510 views88 comments44 favs

We may think about so many things and thoughts about rain. We may think about where it is going, where it comes from.

underwater with their thumbs

15101510 views55 comments33 favs

And your daughter, Mrs. P, and your daughter Mrs. Q, underwater, underwater in the old swimming hole, in the backyard swimming pool. “They’ve all got children there.” La la. Yet when I’m naked, when I enter with my own body the mirror, the small sha

Wings

15101510 views1010 comments88 favs

He knows I talk to angels, what he would call angels. I don’t talk to him.

Have You Seen Me?

15101510 views55 comments11 fav

It’s as she reaches into the fridge for the carton of half-and-half with the grainy waxy photo of the little girl—Last Seen 10/2/06—that the memory surfaces: “Hey. That’s mine.”

The Sound Of...

15091509 views11 comment00 favs

What if Everything I have been doing Hasn’t been heard By anyone?

As the Wine Keeps Flowing

15091509 views1010 comments77 favs

My blood has turned to flour I've been in Babylon too long My heart was singed by fire But it's drowning in my song We raised a prayer to Mary We had to take our share We took our places in the ferry But we didn't pay the fare And we don't know…

To Zephyrus

15091509 views66 comments44 favs

In a field of barley, I see you, ...

Folk Music Returns to Roots, But Some Try to Keep Them Buried

15091509 views33 comments33 favs

“Sandy likes the way Bob spanks, when he’s done she gives him thanks."

Intractable

15091509 views33 comments11 fav

~ ! ~

Table Talk

15091509 views1515 comments77 favs

Her voice gets screechy as she talks of the boy he was caught fondling in the bathroom of a bowling alley. The worst part: the dumb schmuck doesn’t even bowl.

No. Please, No . . .

15091509 views11 comment00 favs

["LIKE SAND THROUGH THE HOURGLASS ... SO ... ARE THE DAYS OF OUR LIVES!"]

Comic Superhero

15091509 views11 comment11 fav

Andrew had learned the art of being a chameleon at school where his school uniform provided an exoskeleton. Beneath was no costume, just the fragile skin of adolescent ego.

You'll Never Get Anything Accomplished on an Empty Stomach

15091509 views66 comments00 favs

The Star Trek marathon ends, and he flips channels. An episode of Full House is on. The cheesy plot lines and attractive women (specifically, DJ Tanner in the late seasons) have become a freakish comfort. In today's episode, the Tanners are baby sitt

Osama Retires

15091509 views00 comments00 favs

Osama couldn’t see any reason he shouldn’t retire. No way he could top BP Oil in the Gulf or Pacific Gas & Electric in San Bruno.

Still Dancing b/w Smokey Conversation

15081508 views1010 comments55 favs

an engine stalls out in the parking lot the driver tears her skirt coming through the door

19.

15081508 views66 comments44 favs

They made posters and hung them everywhere. With the passing days she became the photograph at its center: hair always in the same ponytail; always with the same smile

1st and Goal

15081508 views1414 comments1010 favs

My grandfather was ninety three. My mother was sixty three. I was thirty three. My daughter had just turned three. Our ages were all lined up like the beauty marks on Snow White in the Donald Barthelme version of the story.

Misunderstood, Meet Cynical.

15081508 views22 comments11 fav

The blaring scream from my alarm clock suffices as my wake-up call. It disrupts me from my dream state that I so rarely get the privilege to experience any more. I've always loathed that alarm clock, so I turn it off in the most sensibly aggressive manner I know how: just…

The Nude Pianist: A Novel: Chapter 23

15081508 views66 comments44 favs

After the Tokyo experience, Frank and Michiko decided that when she went on extended tours, Frank would accompany her.

Tongues

15081508 views66 comments66 favs

I feel his hand on my face, feel it brush past my lips, and I taste my sister's blood.

Unspoken

15081508 views11 comment00 favs

I'm waiting for your voice. My trembling hand is so damp the phone could slip from my fragile grasp at any moment. Each ring burns in my ear and makes the washing machine in my stomach tumble faster and faster. After three rings, or it could be four, or forty, I hear…

Helpless

15081508 views66 comments44 favs

She stiffens and blusters and roars Not like a storm, Not like a lion. Like a badger, caught in the steel jaws of a trap.

Triolet

15081508 views1111 comments88 favs

the magic is our making

Shadow Walker

15081508 views22 comments00 favs

Night became day and back again in the span of a heartbeat, the familiar strangeness of the sudden change stinging like dust in the eye.

Love Story

15081508 views1111 comments77 favs

You are a warm winter Despite the presence of snow

Open Wounds

15081508 views11 comment11 fav

Where the skin had grazed, shredded by the coarse gravel to form scabs, fascinated Jack. It reminded him of his youth and his own grazes, scratches and stitches. As a boy he imagined scabs were rough foundations of igneous rock, blood like lava pouring th

After the Flood

15081508 views1010 comments88 favs

That TV you got me? Ruined. And the ionizer fan? Ruined too. All your clothes you left over here, all my work scrubs and weekend dresses too, soaked with that river stink water. I kept thinking bout all the dead creatures.

stung

15081508 views1212 comments66 favs

Lust

About The Author

15071507 views55 comments55 favs

Gnarly Berger was born in a guitar case in Istanbul. His mother was an Iranian singer from Israel accompanied by a Turkish santur player & a French guitarist (Gnarly's biological father) and into whose guitar case Gnarly entered this world, somewhat by accident,…

Independence Day

15071507 views66 comments66 favs

It’s Independence Day. But I’m not feeling independent.