Most read stories

Maggie

15301530 views00 comments00 favs

But she didn't. It would have been no historical anomaly if she had, by the way. She played with the world like it was a toy. Sometimes I wondered if I'd wake up in a box, a victim of live internment, and scream only to be humiliated later by her laughter

In an Unfamiliar Restaurant.

15301530 views55 comments44 favs

I find myself in an unfamiliar restaurant, its cuisine an uncomfortable pastiche of Croatian, Burmese, Jamaican and leftovers of long ago Sunday dinners in a small New England town.

Linear A

15301530 views1717 comments99 favs

let’s press our words into the clay/ in language so completely dead/ we have to re-imagine it.

Divers

15301530 views88 comments66 favs

and, once in a rare while,/ actual pearls.

Another Way

15301530 views55 comments22 favs

If there was another way to describe emptiness, I'd word the endlessness of the sky, of the ocean at low tide.

One Kiss

15301530 views99 comments66 favs

"It was one kiss. No tongue. What does that even mean?" Lindley tried to see Leah as any other patient, "What do you want it to mean?" "I don't know," Leah whined, tears welling, "something, maybe. You know I hate surprises." Her sister was not another…

Troy

15301530 views99 comments99 favs

It’s layer VII we adore/ and mourn

before Creation

15301530 views88 comments66 favs

Before Genesis, digesting the primordial soup.

loose threads

15301530 views44 comments22 favs

Blankets were always her undoing.

The Exhaustion of Dreams

15301530 views1010 comments55 favs

I like it best when I wake up And the wild rain of dreaming ends.

Joe's Sniff Shack

15301530 views88 comments00 favs

Joe's, always smelling of cherry chapstick or the breeze that comes up from subway grates, used to service some of the finest dupes in town.

How Things Fall Apart

15301530 views33 comments33 favs

The leaves/ seek reunion with the ground// and leave the oak tree naked/ in December’s cold.

Unkilled Jeff

15301530 views00 comments00 favs

"Oh — what is this 'work' thing the philosophers speak of" sort of thing.

Where is Now and When is There?

15301530 views88 comments1010 favs

The floor dissolves beneath us, pierced by lasered/ glare of countless eye-beams.

fealty

15291529 views66 comments44 favs

just before my break,/ he came on the line,/ old and slow with computers now/ but wanting a discount/ he'd been told he qualified for.

Let Us Meet In The Afternoon

15291529 views55 comments00 favs

You are Day I am Night Let us Meet In the Afternoon And…

Purpose

15291529 views44 comments44 favs

I gave you two daughters. I gave you four grandchildren. I'm done.

The Gift

15291529 views00 comments00 favs

This was the anniversary of the chairs. He would celebrate tonight for the chairs, and the chairs would welcome him.

Shoot the Moon

15291529 views1717 comments1111 favs

Neither of us thought of real winning. We set about brilliant losing, dark angel forms of luck and greed, the desire, the craving, the need to lose so strenuous that one wins; we tied at thirteen.

Sick Day

15291529 views11 comment00 favs

Marcy was not herself today, her mother said when the school called. She was under the weather and she could not play with the other children. Marcy's mother began to suspect that her daughter was not herself very early on that day. Walking up the stairs Dolores…

Not So Thoughtful After All

15291529 views33 comments44 favs

She put the Necco wafer on Sally's tongue."You can't be the priest, Emma" Sally said nearly choking on the hard, chalky disk."Then why you on yaw knees stupid?""You said to be prayin' and like in church, but you can't be doin' priest stuff. That's for…

Old Shoes for Stranded Soles

15291529 views88 comments66 favs

There are stranded people just like us, that's Not necessarily what I'm looking for. Negativity won't pull us through the Barbed-wire halls of hate. And even if I Was the only one, I wouldn't want you To look any different in the mirror. I'm older …

Another Ending

15291529 views66 comments44 favs

you tell a stranger's story...

Silent Night

15291529 views22 comments22 favs

The church of the self.

What my daughter knows I know or some likely version

15291529 views66 comments55 favs

He doesn't call, not even on her birthday. She doesn't mention it or complain. She knows she doesn't have it as bad as some, even in this privileged Triangle of North Carolina. She is white and pretty and belongs to what's left of the middle…

Deer People

15291529 views55 comments11 fav

There was no provision for keeping the post on the door, but I did not have the fingernails to pry it off.

Good Belongs to You

15291529 views22 comments11 fav

I hope you enjoyed the celebration last night. Good things always come to you. I thought your family would never go home. I didn't get to sleep this morning until 2:59, although I had set my alarm to 6:10. I didn't want you to miss your plane. At daybreak,…

PAPA'S TEARS

15291529 views55 comments11 fav

Darkness was fast approaching. I stuck out my tongue at Naya, and she reached out as if to grab…

The Noise

15291529 views77 comments55 favs

I'm hearing a noise. I can't see it. It's hiding and seems to be coming from the other side of the creek. With boots on I slowly wade across. The water makes its light lapping sounds. Reaching the bank, I search for the noise. It must have a face, suntanned and warm, that I…

Inheritance

15291529 views44 comments44 favs

My father died. I took his clothes.