Most read stories

This Story Will Break Your Heart

13241324 views1414 comments77 favs

The first years of her life she had been owned by a bear hunter and trained to hunt bear, a terrible turn of luck for her.

The Bedlam of Essence

13241324 views33 comments11 fav

When the house was sold the new owners walked in on what they believed was a former life stopped cold. There on the table remained a half-filled teacup and a well-read magazine lying open from years gone by. A Royal Doulton dish set lay half packed on the

End Game

13241324 views1212 comments99 favs

Where the Story LiesEverybody wants to knowwhere the story lies. Does itlie in childhood? Does it liein old age? Does it lie in anangry outburst or a stingingrebuke? Does it lie in a momentof compassion or in the recognitionof calloused selfishness? Bruisedlove or…

77 Words About Nothing [5-01-12]

13241324 views22 comments11 fav

You looked innocent and I was the epitome of just that …

Red Hair

13231323 views00 comments00 favs

She was the middle child, tall and lank, red haired and strong, in a girl kind of way. A girl forced to cope with something tough and objectionable. She was the care giver to her younger brother, making sure he got out of bed and ready for school. She did

Renewal

13231323 views44 comments22 favs

At first he thought it was a cat she was holding, swathed in a white, fleece blanket

The Knife Edge

13231323 views22 comments22 favs

Max understood this perfectly and could easily picture the slow-motion buckling of the spars and the accordion collapse of the fuselage as the propeller blades’ churned up the ground.

Hooker

13231323 views66 comments33 favs

I returned to Minnesota from Montreal a week ago to realize that my sweetheart in Manhattan had hired a Ukrainian escort.

BODY OF CHRIST, Chapter One

13231323 views00 comments00 favs

The sound wasn’t coming from her dream, it was coming from inside the house. Somewhere outside her bedroom the noise was gaining power. Each pitch climbed higher with the urgency of a smoke alarm. With hands over ears and a hazy brain she got up from her

I heard you singing in the bedrooms

13231323 views44 comments11 fav

I heard you singing in the bedrooms with me. The down I was fond of, down of your cheek, your thighs light blonde in the light. Out of the dark, sweet bay, were you like a shining rock, shining white, undulating, a thing of heat. I remember you, yes!

sirens

13231323 views22 comments11 fav

I know what that coast was like, where you went. A coarse country filled with malodorous women that sang from the shores. Groups of nine stripped to the waist. Some with braids hanging down their back. Garden beauties. Visual porticos, with their floral

The Doorstop of Time

13231323 views55 comments33 favs

And then there was a man pissing in 2 urinals, going back and forth between them, saying, “You know how they say 2 heads are better than one? Well, now I get it!”

Sorting It All Out

13231323 views77 comments33 favs

To understand how and when things have gone wrong, it works best to proceed from the beginning and put them in order.

Female Scent-Marking in the Suburbs

13221322 views00 comments00 favs

We watched through the plate glass window, like kids watching a mother guppy eat her young. A woman approached the sweaters but stopped suddently, as if she sensed the dark force Darth Vader projects in Star Wars movies.

the starry night. van Gogh

13221322 views22 comments00 favs

Fortunately not all of the stars are represented in the sky, which is already filled enough with them, or their influence. Two separate swirling rivers of light are flowing into the picture as it is. And each of the stars and the crescent moon are pregn

Payments

13221322 views11 comment11 fav

What it was for, didn’t matter. When Susan walked into Fred’s house every few weeks and start talking, he’d just nod and say, “Sure, I know how tough it is out there, baby.” Then they’d drink some wine and put on some music, and he’d give her a little mon

The Thief of Words

13221322 views33 comments11 fav

That's my memory, kept and clutched as with a sixth sense, that it was a prim Oriental afternoon, with the pink streaks in the sky going God-knows-where down across the park, but very far away. Ghostly, melancholy travellers. Birds met and crashed headlong somewhere up…

The Search for Pastina Continues

13221322 views22 comments11 fav

To assist you in recalling some of Episode One of - "A Poem by Jasmine Coriander-Semolina": My head lifted up slowly as I looked up through a gaussian blur of fragrant incense smoke and saw she was crying. She whispered that her daughter, Pastina, was last…

Blood and Rain

13221322 views66 comments66 favs

There's no rain--there hasn't been rain in weeks--but the clouds are dark without the sun, and I can't see the stars.

Section 8

13221322 views66 comments22 favs

To a desert island I pick a book of crosswords for my one item. It is a desert island. What could be more practical? I awake in the middle of the night, an itch in my throat. I blow my nose. Weird gobbets of blood ring my Kleenex. It drizzles out now, wet here, gelatinous…

Elk Hunters

13221322 views33 comments33 favs

"Damn! All I've got is a hundred dollar bill."

The Angel with The Broken Wing

13221322 views22 comments22 favs

"She was like a perimeter guard for an advanced race of beings who looked human but were somehow para-human entities focused only temporarily within this dimension."

gravelortian part 18

13221322 views22 comments22 favs

A poor boy scribbling

Anxious Whittle Anxious

13221322 views00 comments00 favs

Son, could you please step out of the car?

Cannaregio confrontation

13221322 views00 comments00 favs

I did as I was told, running barefoot down the bare wooden stairs

A Willing Forgiveness

13221322 views00 comments00 favs

I head out the door into Blustery cold winds Walking to my start mark I begin… Expecting in moments To hear the regular symphony Of anatomies brilliant Symmetry… Then I realize In my haste I have been thoughtless It will exact a price… …

She Came to Me

13211321 views22 comments11 fav

I liked her when I first saw herShe came to meI liked her hair and body and eyesBu there was something wrong with Her teethScarred beautyI hit it off with her easily at the barThe others didn't like herShe was a cookShe told me about her narcolepsy, ADHD, Tourettes…

Wild turkey chase

13211321 views88 comments55 favs

“Don’t ever call me that name, formal or informal, okay? Forget you heard it.”

Each Planned to Kill the Other

13211321 views33 comments00 favs

What was heinous about it was how easy I assumed it would be. That was truly heinous, and it was a mistake in the end to think of it that way. But I’ve learned from what’s heinous. I’ve bought a plastic cylinder filled with nylon zip ties. They’re great f

The Flower and the Sailboat

13211321 views1010 comments88 favs

She looked at the flowerthat grew through the stone hedgeon a cliffwhere the rockswere stacked to the edge of the water.It was a polka dot spot of fuchsia, Petals peeking through the green briar bush.On the bridge,Staring hard at the deep water,Ripples of blue that…