Most read stories

Penultimate Vampirekiller for 2026

14191419 views00 comments00 favs

". . . Stinkin' vampires, death to all of ’em, them and their plague-festerin' rats. But the new ones, I don’t mind takin’ ’em down before gettin’ rid of ’em. —But you’ll never get that smell off o’ you if you use only one condom, I’m here to tell you . .

The Generic Poem

14191419 views22 comments22 favs

I’m just your ordinary poem,

Cracked Heart Reigns in My Eyes

14191419 views1010 comments66 favs

Rainy eyes fall fast somewhere close to me Riding the wind like lust

Passing by Pallanteum

14191419 views66 comments22 favs

Passing by PallanteumOr ‘Dido's Song' Form: Double Sestina, iambic pentameter, rhymed Who knows of hell, knows less of paradise? I've known them both, when vanquished in your eyes, When draws the kelp where lost men had their graves Below…

Complex

14191419 views22 comments22 favs

He sees the dogs through the window, his babies, sleeping on opposite ends of the couch. His girl, lying supine, hind legs spread, grotesquely, almost comically, as far as they can without being flush with the cushion. His boy, Cosmo, face down, the power…

Bringing a New Poet into Your Home

14191419 views66 comments33 favs

You may want to pretend to leave once or twice, peeking in through a window from a darkened room, to see how they interact. Never leave a new poet unattended with the pack until you’ve determined that the new arrival has learned to fit in with the other w

Transgression

14181418 views22 comments11 fav

I look as sympathetic as I can, under the circumstance, which is entirely unsympathetic.

Mercury Unbound - 2

14181418 views88 comments44 favs

An infested, indifferent universe . . .

I'm a Clown in His Circus

14181418 views00 comments00 favs

He called me Jay. I called him Dr Corvid. Until the very end, we lived alone. We had no use for any other companionship. I was Dr Corvid's finest achievement until he perfected his Disintegration Ray. I was the first working prototype of Project Novus.Dr Corvid created me…

Where is Home?

14181418 views33 comments33 favs

We are both 53 and this is the first time I’ve gotten past a third date with anyone from Match. Seth is different. I’m not sure why. My therapist said, “Well, maybe you’ll be good for each other. You both have to accept that you are recovering, or in reco

Shoot

14181418 views1414 comments1111 favs

Dear Brandon Lee: I know that you're dead and can't respond to letters, but I've always felt a connection to you.

Stay By Me (And Make the Moment Last)

14181418 views00 comments00 favs

I imagine Gene Simmons licking a twelve year old girl that looks like Erin dressed in a dog collar and leash.

Assiduity Twenty Three

14181418 views77 comments66 favs

The outside world will intrude . . .

Nail polish

14181418 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.

Monsters Happen

14181418 views44 comments22 favs

Dee startled awake from the dream, sat up in bed and looked around the room. The dream came back--hazy, yet clearer by the second. Dee had been warning the girl in her dream that he was a monster; that she shouldn't talk to him, should stay far away from him. …

Monsters

14181418 views88 comments22 favs

I have always been frightened of Ferris Wheels

Losses in Translation

14181418 views77 comments66 favs

One/ can’t always trust the eye and ear// in such matters but what can one do?/ Mistakes will be made.

Ready to Surface in All Respects

14181418 views55 comments55 favs

Our realtor is worried about selling our apartment. He believes it is a submarine. We cannot convince him otherwise. I agree that our apartment is a little small and more than a little cluttered. We have a lot of books. The sensation of standing or sitting in our…

Lost Among the Consonants

14181418 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…

End Time

14181418 views1414 comments1010 favs

and you fall down.

Fire In The Heart

14181418 views22 comments11 fav

The woman leapt from the top of the burning building. The flames reddened the faces of the watching crowd. The heat pushed them back. The woman hit the ground. The crowd oooooed. If only I'd been a firewoman, I thought, with a ladder as tall as a building and a…

Parallel Structures

14171417 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.

My Hillbilly's Got a Hole In It

14171417 views44 comments33 favs

My hillbilly’s got a hole in it And I think I’m gonna die I swear you can see right through him Got a big hole in his side I think I pulled the trigger On the truth gun at my side Then it just got bigger It started getting wide He tried

Eloise

14171417 views22 comments11 fav

Even at five years old, I could tell that Eloise was haunted by ghosts that shook her core, leaving her dangling and seeking stability in slowly repeating her compulsive routines.

Can't We All Be Writers?

14171417 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?

An Apricot the Size of a Heart

14171417 views77 comments55 favs

I dreamt, said the Donkey, of an apricot. An apricot the size of a heart. …

before hell freezes over completely

14171417 views44 comments33 favs

I remember how silk felt against skin, dressed in my damn flimsy things, while the cold bit my nipples. How I would lie in your arms when I was young, after being awakened from my pubescent slumber. (Enough of that!) In a rush to grow up for good, holdi

Upper East

14171417 views11 comment00 favs

As the 5 train gained momentum away from Fulton Street, Helen took her seat with the alertness and suspicion of someone who had spent the day negotiating prices with dirty fishmongers.

Star Light, Star Bright

14171417 views1616 comments1212 favs

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

It's really not the same

14171417 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…