Most read stories

Good Use

921921 views66 comments22 favs

I found a field where all the unanswered prayers were once buried but someone someone someone had dug them up again and was putting them to good use

Return to the Magic Tree House

921921 views33 comments22 favs

“You can't smoke in here, Jack,” his father said. “Your mother will kill me.” Those were the first words spoken as the pair rode in silence from Chester County. Jack pulled the unlit cigarette from his mouth and tucked it above his ear. …

Saved

921921 views22 comments00 favs

I woke up pissed off—like that feeling you get when you take a long nap in the afternoon. Except instead of being on a couch or a bed, I was trapped in a mashed-up Honda on I-75.

Five Million Yen: Chapter 13

921921 views00 comments00 favs

-That’s more like it. He released Ben and holstered his gun under his leather jacket.

Chlorine Dream

921921 views44 comments44 favs

death spoke in a swimming pool in late june:

Living but Dead, In-between

921921 views00 comments00 favs

You ask yourself, how can you be living but dead? It is not possible. Yet it can be and it can be slightly reversible, but realistically, for most people, it is not. Living but dead, is walking in the world of the in-between. Standing with one foot on the

Twenty Percent

921921 views22 comments00 favs

That September, he had enjoyed drinks in the company of now-dead utopians.

Submission

921921 views11 comment11 fav

Periodically I try to vacuum up their eight-legged asses but they hide in the cable drop.

Diana

921921 views11 comment11 fav

Dreams were all she ever had, all that ever comforted her. Diana. But then there was Rachel. And Diana forgot about her dreams, because there was nothing but Rachel. At first it was nothing but innocent phone calls, plans to meet up for coffee…

Have to Find a Way

921921 views22 comments11 fav

I have to find a way To evolve To become To grow into something else To become something else I have to find a way To let go Loosen my firm grasp Watch it all fall away Let myself fall away Drop this act This weight This mess of a life This mess I…

OUR NEXT BREAK

921921 views22 comments00 favs

You welcome the new girl by putting a message on her back. I breathe harder until she pops or until you ask me what I’ve seen or until you see my hand turn into a fist.

The Great San Francisco Poetry Wars, 10

921921 views00 comments00 favs

O’Toole signaled again with two fingers. The night was young. Suddenly I had to go home to my lovely Penny. All I knew was I didn’t want to end up drinking at a hole like this with my head down on the bar.

Preparation

921921 views66 comments00 favs

We may not be capable of even trying to appreciate the fact of mortality until we are somewhat older—let's say 18 years old. But, from the age of 18 until we die—and die we will; we know that—we have the opportunity to spend some time thinking abou

Redneck Haiku

921921 views1717 comments88 favs

some local color Haiku

The Roses Ask For You

921921 views55 comments11 fav

The roses ask for you when I smell them They seem to remember your touch more than others. They can’t bear it when you’re gone and wonder when you’ll be returning I am beginning to do the same I no longer go outdoors to be with them

The Glass Bowl

921921 views22 comments22 favs

I caught a fragment of a charged argument as I passed them. The young man said, “Well, I am talking about love.” And the young woman with equal volume checkmated with, “Well, I am talking about money.” Though their lives were none of my business, this exc

Other Brothers of American Crime, Chapter Fourteen

921921 views22 comments22 favs

An extended account of his criminal exploits for a criminal syndicate of Midwestern newspapers and radio stations hastened a change of career plans.

Crash Car Star

920920 views00 comments00 favs

here we go.

Regrets du Noir

920920 views44 comments33 favs

You want to be Teilhard de Chardin? You’re getting started way too late. There’s a better chance you’ll be tomorrow’s Peking Man if I bury you in the cellar.

Camden Place

920920 views00 comments00 favs

A brown snake coils and nests around purple plums on his lap. I am thrilled he isn’t dead.

my future, maybe yours

920920 views11 comment11 fav

She went for the typewriter first.

City Streak

920920 views22 comments11 fav

the little crummy salon that churned out little fat women with pinked curly hair

Precipitants

920920 views99 comments88 favs

we’ll never win/ the ongoing battle with dirt.

Estonia

920920 views33 comments44 favs

Estonia wore a liver milagro charm on a thin piece of rawhide around her neck and slept with her teeth in a jar. She was dreaming as she often did of the four children she conceived in Mexico. They had  been born in bright colors and dust. Her first child Nina…

Drummer Boy

920920 views00 comments00 favs

A door slams. The vibrations rattle through the floor, up his legs and into his chest. He can hear the yells, and the tears that mar her voice. Rat-ta-tatRat-ta-tat A door slams. Eyes closed while images of a life he will never live flicker on…

the struggle ever renew'd

920920 views00 comments00 favs

At the first door the clumsy research assistant from the Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology rings the bell and when the door opens Mr. Whitman says " O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring!" instead of "Trick or treat" just as we'd prac

tremendous thousand years' charisma

920920 views22 comments11 fav

Okay, I’ll admit it, the earth was shaken on the world's underside, when you left for California. And I sometimes slept on the shores of Lake Michigan and Fox River for your tremendous thousand years’ charisma. To say I cried out in pain would be lettin

Five Million Yen: Chapter 34

920920 views00 comments00 favs

Al-Sidran pulled out a switchblade knife from his pocket and proceeded to carefully cut open the box. Ben could tell it was razor sharp by the way it cut through the packing tape and cardboard.

Another Life Altogether

920920 views11 comment11 fav

{ a Triolet }A smile, a wave as I stepped out Into another life altogether ‘Twas little enough to talk about A smile, a wave as I stepped out And O' how after they did shout (Yet now we only talk of weather) A smile, a wave as I stepped out Into another life…

1. The Knife (or, Ignorance is Bliss)

920920 views22 comments22 favs

He showed me the knife, said it was his best friend. This knife is older than you, he said. Here, run your finger along its blade. Like this. He showed me how to do it.