Most read stories

The Cat Pulls No Sudden Punches

13821382 views77 comments55 favs

and springs its ready-made claws into action and takes a soppy chance that things will probably go its feline way today. But you, my friend, must you always throw the testing switch to high voltage on me? Yeah I get that the history teachers…

Three Short Slips About Plants

13821382 views44 comments33 favs

That twig looks pretty dead to me, He will never ever be a man.

Professor University

13821382 views22 comments22 favs

Is this a tenure track position?

Driving Through Mississippi Wearing a Chin Beard in 1964

13821382 views22 comments00 favs

Ah, the nerve of hot-blooded youth! But the drinking age was only 18 in New Orleans, and we couldn’t resist the call of all that legalized drinking (even though I had fake I.D’s my roommate at Urbana had given me.) You and I had already consecrated

Check

13821382 views00 comments00 favs

My toes curled together under the pathetic rag of a bedsheet, the frost creeping in through the two-inch deformity of the window on the left wall. I was tempted to sneak a glance at them to insure that they weren't black, but then decided that I'd…

STRAY, chapter one

13821382 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

The Nude Pianist: A Novel: Chapter 19

13821382 views33 comments22 favs

—Michiko, are you allergic to cats?

Selfgod

13821382 views00 comments00 favs

Loving himself. Loved by no one. Loving no one.

Shedding the Skin of Past Lives

13821382 views11 comment00 favs

I bow my head and shed the antlers of past lives I no longer butt heads with the universe but I miss my curse and can’t do worse I throw myself in reverse and rehearse the early scenes of science and my full meat diet that sent

Trust

13821382 views44 comments22 favs

I wonder if it was my voice or the words I was almost but not quite saying, cautious words, the kind that wander deep inside one's mind ...

ALL SMOKE RISES. The story of Lilly and her need for MILK-BLOOD

13821382 views00 comments00 favs

Lilly was anything but a white flower. Her skin had been blackened and burnt. Charred legs and arms stuck out like tiny tree limbs, the knuckles on her fingers barely covered by skin. The child’s face is frozen in the beginnings of a scream. She seems anc

THE LATE SOLICITORS

13811381 views11 comment11 fav

Writers, in general, enjoy the solitude that their profession allows, or more precisely, requires. I consider myself a member of that generalized group, along with a more exclusive club of writers who also tolerate an occasional…

The Inconsequential Leaping of Rabbits

13811381 views33 comments22 favs

If someone were to place a rabbit in her lap right now, there would be nothing she could do to hold onto it. It would leap. Drop. Hie its powerful body elsewhere. At the end of her life she would have nothing to show but a collection of rabbit-shaped empt

Downloaded Cheats

13811381 views11 comment00 favs

You are my intergalactic princess / The most beautiful in twelve systems

In The Place Between

13811381 views44 comments00 favs

We played and had joy. As the seasons changed in that peripheral world, we did not feel it. We only saw the snow a bit, only felt the wind a bit, we were not really in it. We still kept ourselves busy. There was something that I did begin to notice. I cou

The Truth about the Law

13811381 views11 comment11 fav

I hear the undying screams of the children outside.

Bird Words

13811381 views33 comments22 favs

a thinking man's bird high above coated with scent of life

Slightly Damp Clothes In the Morning

13811381 views00 comments11 fav

It begins with his positioning.

Automaton

13811381 views22 comments11 fav

I must say your script is rather impressive. “You will mesmerize a girl in velvet stained garment…” “The channels of cologne fade from a body, eventually.” The girl carousels home with a raspier…

Irrational Obligations

13811381 views22 comments00 favs

Irrational Obligations In honor of National Pi Day Any excuse for a circle, a way to pinch the day. They are calling it something like a celebration only with bigger words and too many numbers to count. We'll have to approximate the amount of joy …

Drifting

13811381 views1212 comments66 favs

it's all a bit like the quiet steam drifting to nowhere off my microwaved hot coffee in the sunflower mug

Pageant Night

13801380 views22 comments22 favs

All the baby monsters are being born on stage.

Prison

13801380 views00 comments00 favs

I am trapped.

Deity

13801380 views11 comment11 fav

On this day, a blinding sky holds ribbed reams of clouds, staccato against staggering blue.

Pretend Friend

13801380 views55 comments11 fav

no rule says an imaginary friend has to be a good one

Grey Zones

13801380 views11 comment00 favs

There are these unspoken zones,where everybody is corrupt,and everybody is a con artist.Half the people are frauds,and the other half are phonies.Each person trying to outwit the next person,while everybody else tries to pick each others' pocket.Simultaneously and…

No Lions or Tigers, Thank Goodness

13801380 views11 comment11 fav

I scrambled back a bit and found my feet after untangling them from my trekking poles. Really should have dropped those when this all started. The bear lunged at me with his teeth and I just barely dodged to the left to avoid getting something bitten of

Joe

13801380 views33 comments33 favs

Nephew Joe, my old brother's son, came to fix our pipes. Strapping, strapless, hairless, tanned, he clinked with gold. He came out to us over the pipes... drip drip...I just wanted them fixed pronto. He took precious time. He cried...drip drip...I wanted him to stop. My…

Hello? It’s Me!

13801380 views22 comments22 favs

But I surely did recognize Rayburn Moon; Rayburn and I dated for about five minutes back then

Alone

13801380 views11 comment00 favs

I wake up in the back of my car, sleeping amongst the junk and a steel trolley I had used to help someone move house. I feel for the door handle to let some of the cold, grey morning air in. I gingerly step out onto the pavement and my leg gives way as a cocktail…