Most read stories

My Plastic Dreams

13871387 views55 comments33 favs

Once, in the past or future, but definitely not in the present, I worked as a transportation minister for a friendly dictator, whose name was neither Hitler, nor Stalin, nor Kim Jong-Un, but whose mustache was toothbrush, whose smile was sardonic to the p

bucket of keys

13871387 views33 comments33 favs

I imaged him at his mother's house, eating chicken and tabouli with her at her round marble table, leaning back and laughing, then reading my “love you” and excusing himself to cry in the bathroom.

(Yet Another) Mask

13871387 views22 comments22 favs

In frustration, he picked up a hammer and slammed it straight into the center of the mask.

A Storm A-Brewin'

13861386 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."

Five Million Yen: Chapter 35

13861386 views00 comments00 favs

They sat eating and looking at each other. To Ben, Claudia was certainly a handsome woman and a good bed partner, but he was getting more and more suspicious of her motives.

The Fourth Prague Defenestration: 14

13861386 views22 comments22 favs

“Gentlemen, how could I go about attracting the KGB?” Now that got the attention of Boris and Vladimir. Their eyes bulged right out of their heads. They both started huffing and puffing. “What are you, crazyman or something?” said Boris. Vla

Gone Shopping

13861386 views00 comments00 favs

She found Matthew toward the back, cradling an urn with a tasteful black and gold pattern. When he saw her approaching, he held it up for inspection. “You think I’d look good in this?” he asked.

An Uneventful Night in an Italian Hospital

13861386 views66 comments44 favs

The voice is back! That voice, like milk and honey, like mother, like the school nurse who bandaged my scraped knee.

You Have No Idea

13861386 views11 comment11 fav

“I want you to face the toys!”

The Hitler Channel

13861386 views77 comments11 fav

The sound of a siren approaches his home. His wife asks him why he's so nervous. It's nothing, he says, but he rises from the couch and peers into the night from behind the curtains. The siren approaches relentlessly. The road twists and turns and the sound fades but always…

Five Ways To GET INSPIRED!

13851385 views22 comments00 favs

2. Travel To Somewhere Fascinating, Even In Your Own Back Yard!

When Mistakes Are Made

13851385 views55 comments11 fav

He also looked at the tv with a detachment he sensed was dangerous and the sensation scared him so he ran into the kitchen and felt ashamed alone in the hot room and trembled.

Groceries

13851385 views1212 comments00 favs

Your son is six feet tall in the sixth grade. By his sophomore year of high school, he outweighs you by a hundred pounds. He's been offered four football scholarships and one for a sport he's never played. Every morning his mother, your ex ex-wife, makes his breakfast of a…

Regina Road

13851385 views1313 comments88 favs

I took a left, it's less safe

by the sound of it

13851385 views00 comments00 favs

cicadas run our furnace

Year End Closeout: Buy One, Get Seven Free.

13851385 views88 comments66 favs

It’s not that cold but the cold that is/ penetrates layered cloth and soft skin/ to chill the blood in its capillaries

Carpe Mentis

13851385 views11 comment00 favs

machine utility of thought, intangible aesthetic of sentiment.

the girl who was my suicide

13851385 views1313 comments88 favs

last night a girl came to me in the shape of my suicide.

In the Pink Distance

13851385 views66 comments44 favs

in the pink distance / a boy in a corduroy shirt / sits before an upended electrical spindle / and drinks a vodka gimlet

Stump the Nuns!

13851385 views00 comments00 favs

“It's a combination of ‘Survivor' and ‘College Bowl' says Sister Mary Agnesita, the show's host. “We take four very strict nuns and match them up with boys who were cut-ups in their grade school classes."

Katie

13851385 views44 comments33 favs

Katie died on Tuesday.

Jade Cicada

13851385 views22 comments11 fav

Jade in the emperor’s death mouth – to the grave – all openings closed – no breath – no air – no life to enter to leave – the end should be silent – you stop my mouth

Call to Arms

13851385 views1010 comments88 favs

I call upon all cashiers in dungarees... I call upon the baristas in rags... I call upon those whose sinister principles tax the weakness of their conscience... I call upon all those deracinated by dreaming big...

My Not Entirely Serious Predictions for Season Four of Sherlock

13841384 views33 comments11 fav

The BBC's “Sherlock” is among the most popular shows on TV, and there has been much speculation among die-hard fans like myself about what the upcoming fourth season will hold. Having consulted my own crystal ball, here's what I see happening: Irene…

The Anchorman

13841384 views00 comments00 favs

Welcome back to our ongoing coverage of what we mean when we say "Tsunami: A Very Bad Thing."

Last Stop

13841384 views44 comments22 favs

So we stayed on the train admiring the time.

Shards

13841384 views22 comments11 fav

But you're everywhere, how can I move on? It's so easy for people to say, Get over it, the ‘it' being the smell of your skin, your smile, the taste of your lips, always sweet and salty, like a carnival treat. Remember that neon night when we knew it was over, how we…

Getting Out

13841384 views33 comments33 favs

“We have flown the air like birds and swum the sea like fishes, but have yet to learn the simple act of walking the earth like brothers.” ― Martin Luther King Jr.

Hold on

13841384 views11 comment22 favs

I slept and it was pleasant. Then there was the kiss, and it was hot. Later you turned away, and all was November chill. Now there are touches, caresses and shouts, Marvelous nights flavored with favors bestowed, and blackened days,…

New White Blouses

13841384 views11 comment11 fav

always thought you'd show up with a good friendly grin, your heart full of gnosis and the rest of you dressed in denim or terrene hues,back from across the world to honor our sacrosanct thing maybe it would be in the wind chiseled afternoon,or the dusk by tables…