Most read stories

Knots

11561156 views44 comments11 fav

She sees her first husband on the bathroom floor, ingrained in the wood.

Working at a Truck Stop Outside Charlotte

11561156 views1212 comments88 favs

My name's Barbara and don't call me Barbie if you want to be my friend.

Mr. Townsend Wakes Up

11561156 views11 comment00 favs

Mr. Townsend is a normal guy. He's been on auto pilot a while. When he finally snaps out of it, he's surprised at what he finds.

Five Million Yen: Chapter 25

11561156 views00 comments00 favs

Ben Clarone watched Dan Arris get into the Brighton Beach Car Service car and leave the departure zone of the Pan Am Worldport terminal at JFK. Ben’s rare all wood contrabass clarinet, which his repairman, Sal Frompini, had spent the last six hours adjust

Theory Drive

11561156 views00 comments00 favs

III. The entire place was dusty and rocky, much different from my home. Pockets of power, heat, had proven to be dangerous and inhospitable, sometimes even volatile. It was not the first sign that I…

Snap, Crackle & Pop!

11561156 views00 comments00 favs

snap

space mountain in ghost region from absent-minded continent of misshaped planet

11551155 views00 comments00 favs

Cody had a face, a still and shivering dark basement of a face, one with a negative intake that seemed like it was leaning at a downward angle, as if falling off of itself, or committing suicide, jumping off the edge of the world and leaving behind the su

Thoughts After Arriving Home from the Cafe Havana

11551155 views55 comments11 fav

If someone told me like people do / that I am a good person / I will never believe them / mostly because I own a mirror / but also because I have lived with myself / for the rest of my life

Chewy

11551155 views33 comments22 favs

Chewy is an old dog. His face is mostly white.

A Character Rebellion

11551155 views11 comment00 favs

I had coffee with one of my characters today. It did not go well. I thought we were friends, but I guess I was wrong.

Meet Your Happy-Go-Lucky Poet

11551155 views66 comments55 favs

"Time is an ocean, but it ends at the shore. You may not see me tomorrow."--Bob DylanThey're writing poems, but not for me. Guess I'll write one for my own. For nobody that I know now. It's a pretty lonely world for someone who sings, not you, not with…

The Plane

11551155 views33 comments33 favs

"..sneezing repeatedly into an obviously saturated cocktail napkin,.."

During My Daily Commute

11551155 views44 comments44 favs

in moving cars i am small; in moving cars i am invisible.

"It's Just Breakfast" Fills Dating Service Niche

11551155 views00 comments00 favs

"Too many people were presenting themselves in a false light on lunch dates,” she says. “The power ties on the men, the come-you-know-what-me pumps on the women–that’s not what married life is about.”

man running from a bar

11551155 views22 comments11 fav

A man alone in his paid-for living room, with his hands folded behind his head. A man running from a bar, a bald man seen from behind. Someone who made a wide circle to avoid your laughter. A man undressing at the side of the road saying: “How y

Ponchatoula Tulip

11551155 views99 comments00 favs

You could call it love.

Watching the Clock

11551155 views11 comment11 fav

Benjamin did everything by the clock. He ate when the little hand pointed to five and the big hand pointed to six. He danced when the little hand pointed to three and the big hand pointed to seven. He slept when they both hit twelve.To be more precise, he did everything…

and I am not with you, anymore

11541154 views22 comments00 favs

Dancing at the pavilion leads to sex. A nectar builds up around the heart (damp curl of hair at the neck.) The heart does not know what it cannot have. It is dumb and does not know. But I, for one, hope that it never learns and becomes numb. There i

Without Knowing It

11541154 views11 comment00 favs

If this isn’t Paradise, what is?/ Your own eyes wide with/ the imagination, the knowing,/ the not-knowing of it all.

Handicapping the Saints

11541154 views44 comments00 favs

I've been a fan of hagiography—the lives of the saints—since first grade when Claude Dunham and I were asked to represent St. Stephen and St. Sebastian, two martyrs of the early church, in a tableau vivant of bored boys.

Dinosaur

11541154 views00 comments00 favs

All of the students’ eyes were fixed on him, and now Nelson was embarrassed. It’s not that he didn’t want to pay attention. He already knew the answer to this book. But he wouldn’t dare tell the rest of the class or Mrs. Edwards.

No Such Thing

11541154 views11 comment11 fav

People could disappear in the Pine Barrens and never be seen again. Either by their own choice or when someone didn’t want the body found. John Dance knew that was just a part of life you had to accept and couldn’t change.

Craigslist 2014

11541154 views00 comments00 favs

Craigslist 2014?

Mom Dream, from the Family Album

11541154 views33 comments33 favs

She was trying to hold something, gathering in … lips blue/ black, saying: “I’m all right.” I remember her telling me, over the phone one time: “It’s a baby rabbit, and he was having a picnic. He was chewing away and chewing away. I had six tomato pla

Five Million Yen: Chapter 24

11541154 views00 comments00 favs

As Zoë says, “You and your musician friends drink in industrial quantities.”

No One Was Watching

11541154 views44 comments22 favs

What happens in life when no one is watching?

Drowning

11541154 views11 comment00 favs

I found Mathew face down, cold and ridged like a plastic doll. I had overslept because he never cried—never told me he was hungry. Rodney had to peel my arms from around my son so the paramedics could take him in a blaze of flashing red and white lights.…

My Plumber

11541154 views88 comments33 favs

It sounds so good.

Superheroes

11541154 views55 comments11 fav

I change things without notice for himto make sure he's ready for the corporate world. It's no longer our goal to watch cartoonswe must now focus on breakfastthenaction figures. "But Daddy," he says. "I likecartoons." "I know it hurts," I say."But…

What'd You Do This Weekend?

11531153 views11 comment11 fav

Sometimes your Monday morning answer to the inevitable questions don't have to be so mundane and repetitive. And sometimes they do. No one gives a shit anyway.