Most read stories

It's really not the same

14001400 views1010 comments99 favs

It wasn't the same as taking a course with Ginsberg. Everyone knew Ginsberg. Nick Cave, too, everyone knew him. Waiting lists were full months in advance for those classes, everyone sent in resumes and writing samples, praying, begging to be included. Lish was just an…

Lost Among the Consonants

14001400 views44 comments33 favs

I'm writing our initials in black sharpie on the tunnel wall. There's already people who have come before me, hundreds of pairs of Qs and As and hearts in the middle, through a small hole in the brick I can hear the French accents, spinning through, a reminder that I am…

Yet More from The Chronicles of His Demise

14001400 views1616 comments88 favs

The Muse//has used/ me up

Nanny

13991399 views33 comments33 favs

I remember the days when my brother and I would walk down Tillman Square, careful to avoid the cracks zigzagging along the ground. Well I did. My brother made a point to step on every one.

Can't We All Be Writers?

13991399 views33 comments22 favs

Why not just self-publish on Fictionaut and be read by thousands of my peers? Why not release my cherished work directly to my thousands of Facebook or Twitter or blog friends? Can the budding writer that I am realistically expect a larger audience?

Your Dream Advisor

13991399 views00 comments00 favs

Every night I say "I dream about you all the time, Nae Ann," but the truth is I don't. I dream about stupid crap at work like air filters for a 2006 Mazda RX-8 GT.

Brown Plastic Bag.

13991399 views22 comments11 fav

[ADVERTISEMENT: If you look for it, Google search, for 'html special characters,' the UT Austin page will come up, and you can just Cut & Paste 'em. Fuck the code!]

The Thrill of a Lifetime

13991399 views00 comments00 favs

I honestly can’t say, with Lynda, who cheated first. More than likely Lynda did, because I know she was pregnant when I came home from college for the summer (this was 1963) and we had to go out and find a doctor who would give her some pills to get rid

Finger Lost Finger Found

13991399 views33 comments11 fav

Little Roy Farrell'd taken a bite of his fourth grade teacher's ear as she bent close to help him sound out the word “grace.” Doc Felter had sewn most of teacher's ear back on, but by seventh grade Roy still couldn't read and never understood that he'd in

Every Headache

13991399 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.

Landmarks

13991399 views33 comments33 favs

Play somethin’ solemn, they told me, or somethin’ that sounds like home or the mountains in summer.

In an Irish pub with a lot of oiled wood

13991399 views11 comment11 fav

“I love women. They’re like goddesses.”

The Magic Trumpet

13991399 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…

Remember?

13991399 views44 comments11 fav

We'd been talking about the baby, about what we would do, when the women began fighting after the wedding held in the church next to our apartment. Their fierce and piercing arguments crawled up the walls to the second story window we sat next to. We'd looked outside…

People of Walmart

13991399 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.

End Time

13991399 views1414 comments1010 favs

and you fall down.

Arcana Magi Pure Vol.4 - c.5

13991399 views00 comments00 favs

The mist monster leaned over the building, drawing its face close to Mayumi. Its’ lavender eyes locked onto the Magi as she stood there ignoring Rumiko’s calls to flee.

Masquerade II

13981398 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 . . .

My Hollows

13981398 views1414 comments1313 favs

Let me say these words now

Star-eater; a poem

13981398 views55 comments44 favs

Star-eaterHere lies the star-eater.Tilting on the ancient wheelof summer-glaze-breath,you speak the oceans. Fire's the mealfor you, the star-eater. You defy death,and out of your mouth, a universe openspouring forth, as fleet as the starslight on your tongue. Space…

Cats

13981398 views1414 comments99 favs

and you imagine euthanizing them if what she says is true, that she is leaving them to you in her will.

Swan Song of the Pareto Optimalists

13981398 views33 comments33 favs

I nearly burst out laughing when I heard myself telling him in my accented English that she’d confided in me that she was preparing to sacrifice herself as part of an elaborate snuff film produced by a band of psychotic artists hell-bent on making up for

Real Life

13981398 views55 comments33 favs

Just like real life before poundsigns.

Goodbye Uncle Jack

13981398 views33 comments11 fav

He fought off the U-boat packs in the Atlantic — one hand on the tiller, one on the torpedo launch button.

Rechargeable Batteries

13981398 views00 comments00 favs

Was he really a Secret Service guy? No time to think now! Quick as lightning, Rachel bounded over the sleeping matron and sprinted up the aisle.

Perdita in pieces

13981398 views55 comments55 favs

Perdita's confusing profusion of parts makes it impossible to know which way up she goes.She flutters beneath the camera's shuttered stare, …

Nail polish

13981398 views00 comments00 favs

Those in the house don’t notice the sweaty woman on their lawn any more than they notice the Ruger LCP pistol she holds limply in her right hand.

Star Light, Star Bright

13981398 views1616 comments1212 favs

I am experience and information// at a small but irredeemable remove.

Musica

13981398 views44 comments22 favs

A sizzling as skin and sinew melt, fall away. "Scream if you need to scream, child." And I scream, and her song gains strength. The warmth of her around me. It is time.

Vanishing Vapors with Mister Van Gogh

13981398 views77 comments77 favs

These clouds are what I havewith me. Their language is minebut it is drying today aswe speak. I catch the darkeningsparks, but that's not to beyour concern. I am sure youshall go on. What I wantis to deliver your song. Idoubt it is for anybody else.Clouds are good at…