Most read stories

The Gatekeeper Of The Pathogens

13431343 views11 comment11 fav

It was in his teeth. A blackness, a subscription to an outsideness, a painful contraction of burnt out trees scattered there among sand drifts and tidal debris. His face, lightly weathered and troubled, a tightness built into eyes of thought and separation. His arms, strong…

Lingua Materna, Lingua Imperiale

13431343 views88 comments77 favs

arrogant, sullen,/ supple and ambiguous,// English seems the ideal tongue

Dear Earth, On the Occasion of Your 40th Earth Day Birthday

13431343 views22 comments11 fav

Everyone is tromping around in work boots like an army of happy gardeners. The park is smiling from all this attention, from the sound of kids who think work is play. It's not even sunny but we don't mind. I know you don't. Grey days are just as good. They've…

Freakuccino

13431343 views77 comments22 favs

The bus was almost empty, just me and an Asian girl who'd cleaned up some since I'd seen her. She was wearing a too-big T-shirt that said Freakuccino and writing in a notebook. If she remembered me she didn't say so I didn't either. Everybody sheds some…

FEAR OF LANDING

13431343 views11 comment11 fav

“Omaha is filled with fine clothing stores for men,” he says, “all of them doing very well. Whereas Minneapolis is a different story altogether.” I am trying to sleep in seat 26C. 26B is occupied by Mildred who has already introduced herself,…

The Master of the Air

13431343 views88 comments44 favs

He thought of it as magic, but magic that he understood, the way a magician knows about the hidden compartments in his hat and trunks.

Reality TV is Dead

13431343 views00 comments00 favs

Welcome to the world of (un)reality television. He/she who dies with the most stories wins. Another kind of religion. The Church of Being Famous For Whatever.

The Oral Tradition

13431343 views33 comments33 favs

No preview available due to the brevity of the piece. In fact, this comment itself is longer than the piece.

Shaken not stirred

13431343 views33 comments22 favs

The warmth of the sun

NO IDEAS FROM HERE

13421342 views33 comments11 fav

NO IDEAS FROM HERE Tape The knife that tore the envelope tore the apricot. What was it? Water The boxes ranked against the open room. Watch So it was cut the water bright the tub. Say …

Midwestern Charm

13421342 views55 comments33 favs

He slathered the glue on my scalp and talked non-stop about Harlem. Electrodes or nodes, I never asked which, would measure something inside my head. I doubt they actually did though, measure anything. I've had the pleasure of having wires glued to my skull before and have…

Tariff Happy

13421342 views1313 comments77 favs

Expose those for whom freedom is greed.

Carpe Mentis

13421342 views11 comment00 favs

machine utility of thought, intangible aesthetic of sentiment.

Hey, Boys, Bandits!

13421342 views66 comments11 fav

I remember one time that summer I was with you (1964) going to a bar in maybe it was Melrose Park, or Northlake, or somewhere along Roosevelt Road closer to Chicago, not as far as Cicero though. I went there with a crazy gear-head named Roger Hudson, wh

The Nude Pianist: A Novel: Coda

13421342 views44 comments22 favs

—Man, what a tearjerker way to end an interview, said Ben.

Ready to Go

13421342 views66 comments00 favs

Where the fuck are my keys?Where the hell is my phone?Where the fuck are my keys?Where the hell is my phone?Where the fuck are my keys?Where the hell is my phone?Where the fuck are my keys?Where the hell is my phone?Where the fuck are my keys?Where the hell is my…

The Shirt Library

13421342 views00 comments00 favs

I hate buying shirts. There's no point. You need a shirt, you go to the library.

Bardo

13421342 views88 comments77 favs

In the quiet dark, fathers reappear.

(Yet Another) Mask

13421342 views22 comments22 favs

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

Get a Hold of God, Will You?

13411341 views33 comments00 favs

Get a Hold of God Get a hold of God, will you? I have seen a lot I saw a Great Dane licking the dew off an orange bird of paradise Get a hold of God and tell him that Get a hold of God and give him a piece of my m

Memoir 2.0

13411341 views33 comments33 favs

His friend Boner, who was more accurately a friend of Milo, who was a friend of his cousin in Dubai and who had, up until this post, seemed to share thoughts in common with him, posted, “Holy Shit, Dude! What’re You On?”

Timmy's Singularity

13411341 views55 comments44 favs

Suddenly, the room was filled with a screaming vortex directed at a pinpoint in the corner. Timmy's bureau was gone and everything loose in the room was flying towards the spot it had occupied. Timmy stood up in horror. He tried to seal this rent by tossi

Calenture

13411341 views44 comments11 fav

CALENTURE The horizon is marked with the still sculptures of dead gulls; A young man floats off slowly on the…

THE REAL MAP

13411341 views00 comments00 favs

When we crossed the California/Oregon border, I had this vivid image of sleeping bags filled with human bones. I shook my head and the scene would not go away. The woods must be full of dead campers, hitch hikers, run-a-ways, and black teenage whores

It's My Birthday

13411341 views77 comments22 favs

and the President didn't call.

Having

13411341 views33 comments22 favs

I guess it was, you know, a daze thing: He, lightly drunk, turning red in parts of his head, in his cheeks mostly, and his chest, to which my eyes were drawn because of his v-neck douchebag shirt; and I, sleepy beyond belief, sustained like a zombie only

Violet Hour

13411341 views55 comments22 favs

“My name is Violet,” I add. I am trying to stop lying. Going without cigarettes has been easier.

Collect Enough Fragments, You've Got Yourself a Poem

13411341 views1414 comments1111 favs

I. The sun's corona. Empty boxes near the firehouse. Red birth. A bird's lost wing. II. The bitterness of littleness. Apples in a pile.Early love.A spider, swinging. III. A father's harshness.Twelve bills unpaid. Leaves in a crevice. A dream…

Twilight, Nov. 07, 05:50am

13411341 views66 comments44 favs

Light spreads its way across the sky like a drop of inkon dry cotton sheets:starts at one point and expandsas wind shufflesover bodies, seashoist your sailsand I'll throw this oneoverthe night can have itnowhear the waveshow they seem satisfiedwith their…

exile on and off the road

13411341 views33 comments33 favs

had I gotten home without knowing it? well . . .