Most read stories

A Cool Dry Place PART 1

14511451 views44 comments11 fav

There are times when she is heavy and times when she is light.

Something Going Down, Like a Branch Snapped by Wind

14501450 views11 comment11 fav

This is 57% of middle America, I'm convinced: doomed.

Departures

14501450 views22 comments11 fav

Abigail dragged the monkey Nathanial, her favorite plush toy, in the red dust as her parents moved crummy looking cardboard boxes from the house into the back of the custard colored Winnebago. This wasn't the first time she had ever seen a Winnebago; her friend…

Bigfoot Night

14501450 views11 comment00 favs

The giant stood up and scowled menacingly. "WHAT! You don't think bigfoot is real?!" Big John's face seemed about ready to scowl in on itself.

Masquerade II

14501450 views1414 comments44 favs

. . . once you start reading and thinking about what he's saying, it's like looking at the reflection of your soul in a mirror . . .

Blog 9-15-11

14501450 views66 comments33 favs

...my books have lots of swear words. So there's that.

In the Tent of Princess Citronella

14501450 views00 comments00 favs

While sipping Earl Grey tea in the tent of Princess Citronella, I could hear the nightime burping of several camels outside trying to settle down. A slight breeze entered in through an opened flap and gently vibrated a piece of paper the Princess was handing me. A dog…

Begonia {part seven}

14501450 views00 comments00 favs

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh; the rhythmic thrust of Mezereon’s wings…Th-Bumm, th-bumm, th-bumm; the drumming of his heart…Hooou, hooou, hooou; the exhalations of his breath…

Bog Crossing

14501450 views66 comments33 favs

Written within five minutes, being a parody of the artless vacuity of observational 'poetry'(By Tedward Weeney and Seamus Spews) The large wind in the treetop tells the blackbird its own voice. The yellow grainyard resounds to the clodding of my farmer's…

The Majesty of the Infinite

14501450 views00 comments00 favs

The other night at work, some kid was in for swallowing a snail's shell. He was nine and, according to the computer, did not have cognitive insufficiency. That last bit was probably put there to make us all not feel guilty about laughing at him.

Blank Inside

14501450 views11 comment11 fav

She remembers the days when she could have purchased every card in the store and found the words to fill them all.

Eulogy

14501450 views22 comments11 fav

In one hand she cradles a cigarette, in the other a glass of red wine. Typically neither of these things would be allowed in here, and on this occasion it was thought that it would be better to let her do what she wanted.

I Fall in Love Too Fast

14501450 views44 comments22 favs

It was Wednesday, the papers had a food section that day, so the gap-toothed news hawker at the mouth of Winter Street would yell out “Foozection! Foozection!”

Some Girl

14501450 views66 comments22 favs

Oh, crap! Once you leave your body like that, why do you have to come back down to earth? That’s what I want to know. I remember you wearing English Leather aftershave. Anytime I catch a whiff of it now, it brings back some intense memories! And I r

Character & Fitness

14491449 views00 comments00 favs

Character & Fitness, the opening chapter to my novel, "Death of the Dying City."

Alice in Hell: 13 slithy variations

14491449 views22 comments22 favs

1. Having made Alice from one of the Mad Hatter's ribs, Humpty Dumpty told her she could do anything, except speak. “How bothersome!” she said.2. In the church, Alice was horrified to be presented with a talking lamb. “EAT ME!” it bleated and, as the…

Living in the Death Industry Could Kill You; The Q&A

14491449 views22 comments11 fav

Q: Tell me briefly about how you got into the death industry.

Endless

14491449 views44 comments11 fav

Endless. I find this story.Beginning. To walk.Repeating. Repeating.The Memory. Of snow.Amsterdam. Rivers narrow.Hearts. Divide.Hands. Emboldened.Patronizing. Unpatriotic.Semblance. House held open.Forging. The ties…

Elizabeth Karlin, M.D. and U.W.-Madison’s OB-Gyn Chair’s Cash Window

14491449 views33 comments33 favs

Sad to tears, not bubbly, ordered as all in Madison, outpatient by Elizabeth Karlin, internist, later a bullet-proof vest abortion provider.

Toothed and Thorny

14491449 views44 comments33 favs

Cliffs are not all I've known, but I've seen them every day since I came to light. When I first broke out of the shell that protected me from feet and poisons, I pushed my way into darkness. It was soil. I could not have survived if it was light, and when I surfaced there…

Santos

14491449 views66 comments44 favs

Further down a small group of men lolled near a doorway.

i've worn it like a trophy all day

14491449 views00 comments00 favs

if i could i would leave/ my beating heart like flowers/ pumping blood upon your doorstep/ in gory testament/ to the way you make me feel.

Cheese

14491449 views1212 comments77 favs

When exactly does cheese go bad? it simply does not, I say.

Every Headache

14491449 views22 comments00 favs

It’s possible that you’re dying. Every headache a brain tumor, your friend once said. You laughed then. Now you begin to see what he meant.

(give me a real moment with a living god and I’ll go all the way)

14491449 views1010 comments55 favs

I remember, when I was selling real estate, how you could always tell when there'd been a divorce. One room was conspicuously left emptied of its contents, and these rooms were never swept or tidied. Instead they were left just as they were when the par

The Magic Trumpet

14491449 views22 comments22 favs

I gave my trumpet case to a girl named Sophie; she liked the velvet inside.She still played with dolls;they would live there,in the dark away from the world.Safe. I was a terrible trumpeter;i missed the high notes in band, squawked like a chicken.I strapped the trumpeton my…

The Nude Pianist: A Novel: Chapter 14

14491449 views44 comments22 favs

Frank left Michiko’s building and walked into Central Park.

People of Walmart

14491449 views77 comments66 favs

You look at me with that contemptuous smirk while I'm here in Walmart dressed in sweats and house slippers, sloppy, a bit fat, trying to figure out which electric toothbrush to buy.

Parallel Structures

14481448 views55 comments44 favs

He gave her his driving range and she gave it back. She didn’t know what a bogey was. Arms akimbo he smiled and licked the China cat by the window.

Warts

14481448 views55 comments33 favs

Marie and Mary lay side by side, partitioned by flimsy blue vinyl on cheap plastic rollers.