Most read stories

Passion

12261226 views88 comments55 favs

From words to meaning― how complicated it is.

Call to Arms

12261226 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...

Christmas Presents

12261226 views22 comments11 fav

There’s something Dad’s been telling us that I don’t think is true

Pomegranate juice thief walks home

12251225 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.

Trailer Park T'ai Chi Brings Wisdom of Orient to Midwest

12251225 views44 comments22 favs

He adopts a stance known as Part the Wild Horse’s Mane but calls it a different name--the Part the Hair of the Skanky Barmaid for a Bleachjob position.

The New Main Stream

12251225 views00 comments00 favs

An hour later, we're no closer to the tunnel. In our rental car, we're just two in a school of a thousand fish skimming the edge of the island. Go with the flow, we keep saying to each other. We're just going with the flow. …

Hubris, Now Hollowed

12251225 views44 comments22 favs

We laughed like lords and lunatics Our schematics stretched before us

With Eyes Closed

12251225 views1515 comments88 favs

I believe I will become a bear, snuggle up in a deep cave, coil myself inside my fur, close my eyes on hurting images, turn a deaf ear to the uproar of the world. Bolt my door to the deceiving voices outside. Sleep. Forget. Wait, as we wait for spring, for the violet and…

Like Five O'Clock

12251225 views77 comments22 favs

She pulled the book off its shelf. It meant something else now. He'd quote her in the mirror, at the backs of buses that kept her moving, something she'd said without saying. He would remember for them. She'd forget, without him, the way she wanted. Garland and lights were…

In Memoriam

12251225 views00 comments11 fav

One by one, cars filed into the cemetery, pelted by the summer rain under a gun-metal sky. The procession moved slowly, a series of brake lights and headlights, too close together, too far apart; there were sedans and SUVs, mini-vans and pick-up trucks, shiny new vehicles…

Precipice of Questions

12251225 views88 comments44 favs

He stood with the bride of quietness / on the precipice of questions

Alone Before Surgery

12251225 views55 comments11 fav

I spat in the toilet.

The Fake Humility of Stars is a Terrible Thing to Waste( in Three Recycled Parts)

12251225 views55 comments55 favs

F Bomb I am coming in like a blackbird. Like I'm going to tickle your mud. I am coming in carrying a half-sunk message backward. Is that your lonesome answer? I am coming in to sweep for all saints. 'Course I didn't just wake up…

bucket of keys

12251225 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.

Scottish Independence

12251225 views99 comments88 favs

with peaty aromatics, opened,/ and a welcomed sting, swallowed,

It’s a compromising situation...

12251225 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

A Harsh Pep Talk

12241224 views55 comments33 favs

You are nothing but a generic white man with average looks and intelligence, trapped in an indie romantic comedy. You sit in your overstuffed coffeeshop chair, drinking an impossibly befoamed cappuccino, the sleeves of your flannel rolled up to your elbows, mellow synth…

Snap

12241224 views77 comments44 favs

An eternity in a crashing moment.

The Day I Discovered, Followed The Night I Realised

12241224 views44 comments33 favs

Nature is perfect... We can never learn that much

Eloise

12241224 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.

Assiduity Twenty Six

12241224 views22 comments22 favs

Uzma and Luv are . . .

Epic struggle between right and wrong...

12241224 views00 comments00 favs

The day was yesterday, November 11, 2010. I was home from work, and I pulled my car into the driveway. I stopped short of the garage to get out of the car and get the daily mail. Bills and unwanted coupons for places I didn't go and for items I don't…

Getting Out

12241224 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.

Beaten

12241224 views44 comments22 favs

I was sitting there drinking with Paul at the bar, and it was a Friday night and I was I was feelin good. I didn't have to go to work in the morning, and I had a few drinks and food in me, and I able to that on da cheap, which felt good. And Paul…

The Business of Shadows

12241224 views22 comments00 favs

The flowerpots across the street from Frank’s room at the Place d’Armes Hotel never appeared parched by the late August sun.

The Fuckers

12241224 views1414 comments77 favs

The fuckers tumble out of the bathroom like clowns from a tiny car. The girl has these huge tits and dark red hair. She rushes past me, smelling like chocolate. A guy's behind her, holding onto the back of her jeans. He's not good looking enough to…

Domestic Sketches

12241224 views55 comments33 favs

The cats sniff at the small opening,/ one by one, in a furtive casualness./ They think the outside air is sweet

Duty

12241224 views66 comments66 favs

Two girls, twelve years old, run down San Pedro Avenue past the market, the middle school, seven driveways, their small chests heaving. The smooth soles of their Mary Janes keep slipping on the gravel driveways. Two men in a rust-orange van bear…

Five Million Yen: Chapter 11

12241224 views00 comments00 favs

Ben was stuck between sweet essences and rancid Talmudic funk. It was going to be a long trip.

STRAY, chapter one

12241224 views00 comments00 favs

"A Social Worker develops programs to help feed the poor," she had said, "and makes sure there's a chicken in every pot. A Counselor asks them how they feel about getting the chicken. And a Therapist diagnoses and treats them when they start hearing