Most read stories

Soulspring, by Norman Klein.

13261326 views88 comments55 favs

The call came...

Mornings

13261326 views33 comments22 favs

Over the last years of her life, my mornings began when Mom decided to play. Sitting on her black, ball-and-claw stool, she'd raise the key cover, stretch her neck and shoulders, and take slow, deliberate breaths. A deep, meditative state descended over the room and…

My Commencement Speech

13261326 views11 comment11 fav

To The Graduates Of The Class Of 2010: You are here today at a critical crossroads of your life. For most of your 22 years you’ve been taught to work hard, obey the rules, listen with respect to your elders and to trust that every effort you make wil

At Sevens

13261326 views22 comments00 favs

Originally published on Six Sentences:He walked out of the hotel lobby into the pre-dawn night and thought about another woman, a pretty Spanish woman, not the woman he'd just kissed in a hotel, and a night he'd spent with her in Portugal, wanting each other desperately,…

Why?

13261326 views66 comments55 favs

A perennial question.

Three Questions on Distance Running

13261326 views99 comments55 favs

Do you see the hot coals of doing? The way time sizzles or wilts…eat those coals.

This Is Not A Ghost Story

13261326 views00 comments00 favs

"Man, I'd love to do coke chopped up with the remains of this motherfucker," he said as the unicorn's head smacked against the screen of his netbook for the 12,364th time.

Zum is one instance of "um" herein

13261326 views1010 comments66 favs

Millennium jumped strumming lithium gum cumulative outnumber humiliated résumé jumpy instruments

Excuse Me, I’m Writing a Poem Here?

13261326 views44 comments44 favs

I’m up to my kneecaps in mockery and swill, and … Excuse Me, I’m Writing a Poem here? Thank you. Sheesh! As I was saying, I’m up to my kneecaps in mockery and swill. And I meet someone who names all his fish after people he doesn’t l

Kafka, Smashed

13261326 views99 comments77 favs

perhaps I am only being transported not for replacement but for repair

An Alphabet

13251325 views44 comments22 favs

A daydreams about a woman whose name he’s forgotten next to B, who’s been drunk since afternoon.

BACK IN THE USSUSSUSSR

13251325 views55 comments33 favs

It was on the Fake News today, Oh boy They built a bridge from Alaska to Siberia Called the Bridge Over Troubled Waters Instead of a wall And Putin came riding bareback on a pink unicorn Into the White House and renamed it The White Horse,

Above Love

13251325 views22 comments11 fav

Love is easy. Lazy. Fickle.

The Full Car: A California Saga (1968)

13251325 views00 comments00 favs

—They turned him into a time bomb. Listen close, and you can hear the tick-tick-tick. —All I hear is snoring. How do you know he was brainwashed? —Because he can’t remember a thing about the experiment. —I can say this: If he can’t remember anyth

Blow Me

13251325 views11 comment11 fav

[BEEZLEBUB SAYS, "GO!"]

A Tale

13251325 views44 comments22 favs

But you don’t know how to fly, Bunny! How ever will we survive?

PRELUDES AND INTERLUDES

13251325 views00 comments00 favs

Her friend had been drunk, and sometimes after two or three quarts of beer, he'd tell people that he was Jewish.

1 Good Hubcap

13251325 views44 comments33 favs

I got one good hubcap I lost the other 3 I just don’t know What the heck is wrong with me I got one good hubcap As you can plainly see The other 3 were seen Just a-hanging from a tree That’s what must’ve happened When I ran my car ri

Chopsticks

13251325 views33 comments11 fav

They’re coming now. Thousands of them. Black wings, antennas, spindly legs.

ALL THOSE YEARS

13251325 views11 comment11 fav

Joseph and his little brother, Kevin, were there again. Kevin was too small to understand what had happened yet. He would usually just go off, running around the statues and playing with the wreaths; the last time they'd visited he climbed a tree and broke one of the…

Checking Out

13251325 views66 comments11 fav

Minnie looked at her co-worker's nametag. "Destiny," she said to her. That's a pretty name. It suits you. You're an attractive young lady. Is your momma pretty?" "Not like I am," Destiny said as she smoothed her shiny black hair. "I'm honest about it 'ca

A Shower of Rain

13251325 views66 comments44 favs

You have at least an intermittent belief.

The Polish Worker

13251325 views44 comments11 fav

... and that’s the story of the Polish worker who looks like van Gogh.

the long white cloud above my body

13241324 views22 comments11 fav

Butter me up, moon lover. Remember, I was once your warm and hot goddess of flowers, washed to shore with the others you may have forgotten. Now the issue of the earth gets nearer, and we can see each other once again, if only in our dreams. Just be

Pomegranate juice thief walks home

13241324 views88 comments66 favs

That is a six-word story. Notice that the meaning does not change with the word count. Syllabic count: pentameter (ten). Keep these commas.

The Dolly Boys

13241324 views11 comment11 fav

I have a fascination with Dickens and London and this was inspired by my next novel.

Ode to an Afro (or Going Natural in a Corporate World)

13241324 views44 comments11 fav

In praise of the colorful flock with crowns of teased cotton candy rising high above Modular walls, stalled operating systems staling coffee and pale corner offices

The Fourth Prague Defenestration: 8

13241324 views11 comment11 fav

“Okay,” Boris said, wiping his mouth, “ready to go see these paintings by Lenin? We go now.” “Where are these paintings exactly?” Ellen of Troy (NY) asked. I didn’t mention which Troy she was from. “I have friend in Prague,” Vladimir said. “Has sh

Alice Can Derail You in 3/5ths of a Second

13241324 views2121 comments1111 favs

She connects to you via snarling vines & worm-woven tunnels. Drops Roman numerals

Out of Vegas

13241324 views44 comments33 favs

Whatever it is, the night vibe feeds off that disadvantage, nibbles at the desperation of those who come here.