Most read stories

The Nude Pianist: A Novel: Chapter 38

12841284 views44 comments22 favs

—Francesco, I wish you would give up smoking, said Michiko.

Wildfire

12831283 views55 comments44 favs

Those resting in clusters of bones, Cradled in ashes of what once were homes.

Confession

12831283 views55 comments55 favs

As a boy Edward had stayed in the confessional several times in a row. The priest was drunk and couldn't tell it was the same kid over and over. The tiny door slid open…”Scobbity bobbity…tell me your sins…” Edward confessed what he thought were sins, then said…

Band Names Too

12831283 views44 comments33 favs

Gun Notches Working Stiffs Garlic Torch Dog Crouch Menbrain Membrane Ein Zwei Drei Fake German Soldier Wet Tissue Tissue Paper Pants Tough Stain Adam and Evil Closed Loophole Wait For It Fiscal Cliff and the Cliffhangers Repu

Apples and Oranges and Apples

12831283 views55 comments44 favs

No one is going to find us. And even if they did it's just a play someone wrote with you in mind as the lead. No one is going to find us. I could have told you this but I didn't want to spoil your newfound fun. No one is going to find us. The funny…

Beach Tale

12831283 views11 comment11 fav

I should have worn shorts.

Mr. Townsend Wakes Up

12831283 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.

A Journal of the Plague Year, Day 193

12831283 views1111 comments66 favs

More thoughts on denial...

Things We Lost On Tuesday

12831283 views00 comments00 favs

REVELATIONS Bobby Coleman hated every part of his job — not just the usual things like meaningless deadlines, unrealistic work loads, and failed expectations; Coleman was done with all of it. Too many years at his nine to five had him convinced he was…

Here is a game...

12831283 views22 comments22 favs

I give you three words dripping wet with whatever and you take them, harbor them...

The Nude Pianist: A Novel: Chapter 36

12831283 views44 comments22 favs

Vicki's scream echoed in Michiko's ear, an unwelcome earworm.

Class

12821282 views11 comment00 favs

Before they ever spoke, Linda and Meg had sat next to each other in the cramped lecture hall for three weeks, their thighs touching, while Dr. Laurens showed slides of ancient Japanese art. Meg's eyes never left the screen, but Linda glanced at her as often as she…

A Dream in Brick

12821282 views44 comments22 favs

A man walks up and faces this new red brick wall The bricks are all perfect as you might expect in a dream And the cement is tuck-pointed without a dribble, anywhere He looks at the wall and puts his head through it And when he pulls h

David and Big Bird

12821282 views22 comments11 fav

Hot sweaty bodies slam into each other to get aboard the overflowing subway car. I struggle to wedge myself though the sliding doors, bracing for more bodies to press against mine. The passengers in front of me suddenly stop and fan out.

Thoughts After Arriving Home from the Cafe Havana

12821282 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

Rain Song at Summer’s End

12821282 views55 comments33 favs

Soft rain, small rain, steady rain— what the shrubs and tangled young red oak tree need—

Craigslist 2014

12821282 views00 comments00 favs

Craigslist 2014?

For my Unknown Love

12821282 views33 comments00 favs

I still remember the old times when we were together. I wish I wouldn't have let you go. If you ever thought that we should be together, please come back.

Exchange Rates for Zynga

12821282 views55 comments11 fav

As with the trouble with gambling, I managed to spend beyond my self-suggested limit at the farm while wanting to do little else. It became a chase for "money" (numbers like rubles) ...

Fortune Favours

12821282 views00 comments00 favs

We're all just meat and atoms who can no more sense into the great beyond than a horse can fly a plane.

traffic incident

12821282 views22 comments11 fav

and i start screaming. i check the damage in my rearview mirror but there's nothing.

Heart Apart

12821282 views22 comments22 favs

Yes, I had pulled my own heart apart Yes, I had slipped up on time itself In its own backyard behind my memories And scared the crap out of it By not yelling, just sniffing at its neck Longingly, tearing it apart with my teeth Wishing I had

A Borrowed Barrow

12821282 views44 comments44 favs

It was a battered, creaky, rickety old thing, this wheelbarrow. It had two wooden handles with cracks running through the wood, a fat rubber wheel and a deep tray encrusted with the mud and plaster and grout that it had transported through decades of heavy use. Based on…

Crisp and New

12821282 views33 comments11 fav

He told me it isn’t my fault. That my brain isn’t slowly and deliberately killing itself, not barbarically stripping away its own wiring to expose razor bursts of electricity.

happy hour

12821282 views55 comments00 favs

I remember seeing five young losers standing outside this bar, smoking cigarettes in their baggy shorts and flip-flops, giving the occasional high-fives. They weren’t even eating their calzone, and I was getting upset about it. (I hadn’t eaten the whole

The Mother Kidnappers

12821282 views22 comments00 favs

We kidnap mothers of all sorts: old mothers, single mothers, young mothers (rarely), but we never do it for ransom. As a society we are adamantly opposed to the use of violence. Our mission is to remove mothers from environments they are not appreciated in, whether by their…

He Sure Can Play Piano with Those Giant Lobster Hands

12821282 views22 comments22 favs

He sure can play piano With those giant lobster hands In his ratty raccoon coat And his old black cowboy hat His boots of Spanish leather And face like sultry weather His raspy croaking voice Picking out the words so choice They reall

The After

12821282 views55 comments44 favs

I watched her look at mewithout any eyes.She turned her head as wesat on the edge of the bed.Instead of eyesthere were hollow indentations of soft tissue,bulbs, and closed,tissue sown, pinched togetherwith pulls and zigzagslike crosshatching, where…

What Goes Above Our Heads Sometimes Does Not

12811281 views1010 comments22 favs

We floated balloons to my dead uncle in Heaven for closure. I couldn't figure, at age seven, how he was under the ground and in the sky too. Mom touched Dad on the arm. It was Dad's brother. It seemed like Mom was sorry for something…

Weather

12811281 views11 comment00 favs

I liked E first because she knew all the words to "Alice's Restaurant." Everybody knows "American Pie," but "Alice's," that's impressive. We used to cut class in high school and drive around listening to it, and I'd try to pretend I knew the words, but I never did, so…