Most read stories

The Cure for Cancer

12241224 views99 comments77 favs

Thus, more people can drown// and leave their bones

The Poisoning

12241224 views1111 comments99 favs

The Poisoning I used to call my dad Serpico. Thirty years on the police force, and though a respected officer, he never fit in. He never had beers with the guys at the end of a shift or engaged in the more lewd locker room talk. None of the other cops were privy to which…

Bare Ruined Palace

12231223 views88 comments55 favs

Every encounter is a dance, every secret has its key

A Storm A-Brewin'

12231223 views11 comment11 fav

"I'm just saying," the older man continues, "We oughta be ready in case she hits." "We'll be fine," the woman says. "We've weathered every storm that's ever come through here just fine."

Things Unspoken

12231223 views11 comment11 fav

There's something about the way he touches me every time that makes my heart skip a beat and pushes the air from my throat. I shiver under his hot breath while he whispers softly and pulls himself closer, letting his fingers glide…

Hunger: A Prayer

12231223 views22 comments00 favs

Prayer: Cold prayers in her throat, so far all unanswered. This thing grows steadily, unmistakably, cobbling counterfeit cells and flesh together into an unspeakable mass.

Quitting Smack

12231223 views66 comments33 favs

I figured he knew what he was doing–he was the crazy one, after all, not me–so we took turns snorting lines of equal volume.

The Fourth Prague Defenestration: 16

12231223 views22 comments22 favs

I still wake up with a start to this day, remembering the sound of that squish. And the cheer from above of all the brutes hanging out the open castle window. And of course the roar of approval and delight from the hordes of Chinese, Russian, and Germ

Suicide Consulting Hotline

12231223 views77 comments66 favs

We exist to facilitate/ successful conclusions of hopeless lives.

Trompe l'oeil

12231223 views1818 comments1313 favs

After her grief had subsided, the wife felt immediate relief. / Suddenly she was free to abandon or pursue loneliness

Home Security

12231223 views1111 comments77 favs

They might think that loneliness has made me gullible, more than willing to open for them all kinds of drawers.

Notebook (excerpt)

12231223 views66 comments44 favs

I try as much as I can to write but only in as much as you believe―am I successful.

Lucky in Love

12231223 views66 comments55 favs

Clasped his hands behind his head to give a moment’s thought to love and how it had never quite clarified in his mind to run pure and sweet.

The Trust-Funders Take Over the Loser Cafe

12231223 views44 comments44 favs

It was time to go sit outside in the sunlight with the gang of trust-funders, just to see what was new in the world of high finance and falling stock prices. “So, what's happening with the economy in China?” I asked. And they just stared at me as if I had

God Wanted Us to Come Here

12231223 views00 comments00 favs

Betty had been looking for a distraction; the lawsuits were out of control. Her last nonprofit, Faith and Life Children's Organization, had run into some difficulties due to the recession and the obvious result of trying to do more with less. Why couldn't people…

Are You A Handywoman? Take This (Not Entirely Serious) Test and Find Out!

12231223 views22 comments33 favs

As I was reading “Not Your Mother's Book on Home Improvement,” a new collection of light-hearted essays by (primarily) middle-aged female do-it-yourselfers, it became abundantly clear to me that, unlike the women who tell their stories here, I am not a…

Storms at the Door

12231223 views00 comments00 favs

My Mother always said that a storm was death knocking.

Video from Cairo

12231223 views11 comment00 favs

The view from the tenth floor of Ramses Hilton hotel was depressing. A restless crowd undulated between the wrecks of tanks and armored cars. JOURNALIST: Hey! I’m dying here, and you admire the views?

The Nude Pianist: A Novel: Chapter 14

12231223 views44 comments22 favs

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

Inside, Outside

12221222 views1010 comments55 favs

You drive that '67 Ford PU down highway 73 like it's gonna take you where you want to go. Pig truck makes you want to roll up your window, but it's just too damned hot. You stop on the shoulder next to a sign that tells you not to, and you look in your glove box for a…

Civilization Marches On

12221222 views55 comments55 favs

The redwood trees were taller than dreams

Les Cahiers du Kung Fu Pimping Cinema

12221222 views00 comments00 favs

We at Cahiers must continually ask–is le cinema de kung fu pimping really, truly—as bad as it wanna be?

Me and Not Me

12221222 views55 comments44 favs

Is there a homunculus in my brain guiding everything like the pilot of an airliner?

Every Time It Happens

12221222 views11 comment22 favs

Every time it happens, I think of Amber Heard and how hard you can be slapped without a bruise forming.

Stars and Smiles

12221222 views77 comments44 favs

Older than a star I am

The Brevity of Anthropology

12221222 views1111 comments88 favs

In time's embroidery, the human storyis a short stretch of a short strand within the thread of half a knot-and that stretch of strand's defective. What will mourn us when we're gone?Not the plants which live so lightly on the earth.Not the scorpions and not the ants.Perhaps…

What I Really Wanted

12221222 views77 comments55 favs

you can't always get what you want

Announcing Human Season

12221222 views1010 comments44 favs

Contest rules are simple. Two teams of five hunters each are established by drawing from pools of interested volunteers and selected prison inmates confined for capital crimes and illegal immigration.

Lassitude

12221222 views55 comments22 favs

It's morning, and the cold black hull of branches sets my resting pier, Amid this drizzle, underneath the poignant pain of birches, wrecked By floods of midyear grieving; wraithlike, Dawn's been becked To paint in shafts of faded rose that shades the fen…

The Passed Away

12221222 views1111 comments66 favs

Died is forever. Passed away/ Is ambiguous. Dead isn’t/ polite.