Most read stories

The Campus Socialists

13731373 views33 comments11 fav

The Campus Socialists Paul and Mary Jo lived in an apartment at the top of a long, dark flight of stairs that were so high, I remember as if it were yesterday thinking, the night she pushed him down the stairs, he would surely be dead by the time h

The Master of the Air

13731373 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

13731373 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.

They Wanted Songs about Love but Got Idle Chatter.

13731373 views77 comments33 favs

Granddad listened to Elvis and then he would talk more or less the entire night. “Mystery Train” was Sam Phillips' song. Then Presley recorded it, but did it up different, sounded much faster so you could feel your hair blow back a bit. …

Wild Dreams of Reality, 14

13731373 views00 comments00 favs

We both looked toward the house. We could just make out a light that was barely visible coming from the side where their bedroom window was. Slowly an evil grin appeared on Darrell's face. He looked at the knife in his hand. "This will do it!" he sa

It’s a compromising situation...

13731373 views00 comments00 favs

It’s a compromising situation... The would be Bride of Christ begins perspiring before the crowd. Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring echoes through the antique church just one more time, a little loud. With every added verse and every flickering vigi

Prairie Flowers

13731373 views55 comments11 fav

As a kid he had run away from the family farm and shoveled coal back East to put himself through college. Now he was just another old man in a nursing home, desperate for a drink, his blue eyes bleary, a sticky goo filming at the corners of his lips.

The Nude Pianist: A Novel: Chapter 47

13721372 views55 comments33 favs

—Mr. Martinelli, can you explain how you developed your painting technique?

The Anchorman

13721372 views00 comments00 favs

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

Canvas

13721372 views22 comments11 fav

The artist with fork and trowel. The paint; soil, seed, seedling or plug.

The Gatekeeper Of The Pathogens

13721372 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…

It's May. Enjoy Yourself!

13721372 views11 comment11 fav

May is National Masturbation Month. How do I know? My pal Senior Sex Expert Joan Price is not only vigorously celebrating, but doing everything she can to spread the word.“I'm on it!” I assured her when she told me. “Thanks.”…

The curtain

13721372 views1414 comments88 favs

In the evening the curtain recounts its day. Faces, images, incidents it has observed from the window. Its voice is nuanced, modulated, quivering, for it is made of lace. It appears to crochet its words with needle sounds. My eyes, during confinement, are not wide open, not…

People

13721372 views00 comments00 favs

Good kid. Awesome job in big cities. Travels a lot. Enjoys Martinis and G&T. She's a romantic. Spends her time online trolling people into submission. Likes softcore porn. Sets cats on fire. Collects stamps.

A Flat Sheet and One Standard Pillowcase

13721372 views00 comments00 favs

this is your hair, this is your stare, this is your voice

Year End Closeout: Buy One, Get Seven Free.

13721372 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

An Elevator Door Opens

13721372 views44 comments44 favs

What’s your favorite emotion? Mine is ripping the sky apart and standing on a star outside of time.

Politics

13721372 views88 comments44 favs

These days, you seem to disappear like bread tasted and devoured

Desire

13721372 views33 comments44 favs

Dark morning sleet whitecrusts the world once more, shrouds remains of January thaw:

Almost There

13721372 views66 comments33 favs

On the phone I asked my mother how she was doing. “I’m getting old,” she said. “Going slow. But getting there. I’m ninety-four!” My mother was always 94, when she was really 93. I remember she was 93 right after she turned 92. And 92

Stump the Nuns!

13721372 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."

Hook

13721372 views22 comments11 fav

“What the fuck!” Duke muttered, amazed at what he was seeing in the darkened store. A thin curtain of smoke was rising from under the baseboard like an inverted waterfall. It stretched the entire length of the left wall. Holy shit, the joint's on fire! I…

Jade Cicada

13721372 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

Off We Go Then

13721372 views55 comments55 favs

Wish more than ever there was a more perfect way to mean everything I say. If I could I'd certainly walk all my words right up to your face now and give them over, hand to hand so to speak. That's the point at which I'd very much…

His First and Only: A Love Story for Halloween

13721372 views00 comments00 favs

It was the woman, Mary Lou Compton, that he cared about. They would've been happily married by now if Bryce hadn't killed his Uncle Ned.

Celebrity Sighting

13721372 views00 comments00 favs

No, that can't be him, Joe thought. The guy was messing around the displays in back. He had walked in three or four minutes ago, by now, and he certainly looked the part — or at least Joe thought…

When Deer Attack

13721372 views11 comment11 fav

Carla woke up from her hospital bed screaming. "Somebody please help me. Please save me. I am begging you."

Carmen Scarpino, Pioneering Wise Guy, Dead at 78

13711371 views00 comments00 favs

Breasts were developed after World War II, the result of improved nutrition and the additional muscle mass that “Rosie the Riveter”-types acquired through manual labor in jobs that males abandoned to join the war effort.

Fossil Beach

13711371 views1515 comments1212 favs

hiking to Fossil Beach

ExsanguiNations

13711371 views88 comments66 favs

leaches fatten-up