Most read stories

55 Words #1

26432643 views33 comments33 favs

I would roll my eyes, give one word replies or a smiley face.

...And Nail

26402640 views3030 comments1515 favs

For twenty-eight years, Cochran Baines removed a tooth from the mouth of every dead child that spent time on his table.

Some Nature Haiku

26402640 views44 comments22 favs

The proud, burly tree / Rests on the now crashed TV / Thanks a lot, nature

Anhedonia (excerpt)

26382638 views33 comments22 favs

Things have happened. It’s a given. What, are you crazy? Of course things have happened. It’s the world, for Christ’s sake. Things are happening. I am consistently missing most, if not all, of them.

Billy Strayhorn: A Short, Gay and Lush Life of Beauty

26372637 views88 comments77 favs

“I don't have any position for you,” Ellington told Strayhorn. “You'll do whatever you feel like doing.”

Two Things I Did Not Know

26372637 views1616 comments1111 favs

Their breath stank inside my lungs and tamped down the very minute amount of remorse I had left. It was replaced with contempt. Their fear warmed my cold sensibility as I steeled myself.

Quitting

26352635 views2828 comments1717 favs

If you outlive me, she said, it won't be because I smoke but because of what you put me through when you quit.

stinking nightgown

26342634 views99 comments66 favs

Frank says if I eat the whole bowl of live crickets he’ll give me five dollars and his grandfather’s silver bullet from the war.

Upstream

26322632 views2929 comments1414 favs

But home won.

Robotics

26322632 views55 comments55 favs

I made this robot. Everyone was making them. Mine was a vacuum cleaner with a rubber jack-o-lantern mask taped to the handle. His name was Z-Bot2131F, but I just called him Brady, after my dead brother. Brady, my brother, had come out cold, and…

Behind Blue Eyes

26302630 views1717 comments88 favs

“You don't know what it's like, to be an old man, to be alone man, behind blue eyes,” he said to the downtown city sidewalk. The sidewalk said nothing. People with someplace to go rushed by him, not stopping.

There Is Nothing Left To Do But Care

26302630 views22 comments11 fav

He was the kind of cat who began lifting weights in the fourth grade.

Mind Games

26292629 views1414 comments44 favs

Rendine Philips polishes his courage and enters the fray. Not virtual reality, more reality virtuous. He feels the pull and the push. Electricity pulses resistance.

Roadside Attraction

26282628 views2626 comments2020 favs

There is a certain stage of sobriety among men who drink every night. In that stage, they are their best selves: they write novels, fix cars, care for their young. Then they change.

Santa’s stuck

26282628 views11 comment11 fav

The lard-arsed ol’bastard struggling soot-faced and yelling. . . .

Daffodil

26282628 views5353 comments2525 favs

The Trinity boys don’t blame me at all. They know I am not stupid about the world. I am a robust girl. Nevertheless, like everyone else I have limits. I am a clock that winds down.

The White Cloud

26242624 views1212 comments88 favs

Like a small meteorite, a white cloud falls. The journey seems to have been long since it cannot spring up again, its wings being exhausted. Like a scared and shivering bird, it curls into my hand. Its apparent fragility prevents me from tightening my grip. A unique…

Other People’s Children

26222622 views1111 comments66 favs

Children should not be made to do things unless they want it.

Freeing Annabel Lee

26212621 views66 comments66 favs

It drifted into the sea, I say, when you ask me about home. You’ve only known me for a few moments, so you’re not sure how to gauge me. You laugh, and make an Annabel Lee reference. The English teach in me wants to hug you. The New Jersey in me wants

it snows

26202620 views2828 comments2020 favs

I popped open the wine with a Nike shoelace, a trick I learned on the internet

Anything Again

26202620 views2626 comments1717 favs

...she lifts one shell, sips a little, then swallows the creature whole.

No access to the Hollywood Sign

26192619 views1313 comments1212 favs

The sign that informs tourists that there is no access to the Hollywood Sign is the most ignored sign in all of Los Angeles.

Soviet

26192619 views11 comment11 fav

The neatly-gentrified Mtsensk District plaster buckled in all the right grey-painted places. The aged, yellowing windows rose and fell in fashionable decay. It was a well-upholstered citizen's slum, drawn to exacting state specifications. Local housing authorities…

Sparrow Down

26182618 views2626 comments2525 favs

There's no surcease from heat, no "cool of the evening," like the songs say about summer in the South. Those songwriters sat under fans in the Brill Building in downtown Manhattan.

Abletofly: Latest Drug: Read Before Use

26182618 views11 comment22 favs

With Abletofly you will be able to fly and the feeling will be overwhelming! That’s right, Abletofly. A few warnings and precautions are in order, however: Don’t try to drive a car if you experience an erection lasting more than eight hours.

ER Chronicles (3)

26162616 views77 comments00 favs

In the shower she sees that her nipples are large and brown, feels the weight of her breasts in the hot water, and suddenly her hand is between her legs, seeking the pleasure that's always been denied her, always

~psychosexual suzy~

26152615 views44 comments44 favs

I hear all the static in her head, all the fuzzy threads from half a mile away. She hates dirt. She hates the couples who come in and talk stupid lies at each other. It's so simple with her. I ask what she likes. The feeling of soft wool on her bare nippl

The Riddle of Steel

26152615 views44 comments22 favs

This is my motorcycle. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My motorcycle is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me, my motorcycle is useless. Without my motorcycle, I am useless.

Clover Grill: A Short Story

26142614 views1313 comments55 favs

I'm somewhere on I-10 in Mississippi, barreling westbound at 80 miles an hour through a rainstorm on a late Wednesday afternoon. The last road sign I remember was for Beauvoir, some Confederate general's…

Heaps ain’t Enough

26142614 views3737 comments2020 favs

"And I listened, too, sitting at the table with him with my palms on my chin and my fingers on my face ‘cause I love listening to my man talking about why he loves me."