Most read stories

on a long suburban plain

11781178 views22 comments11 fav

We were stuck sweating it out on a long suburban plain when you left. Or else we’d mob the one visible hill (in Palos Hills, or Hillside) and turn the televisions on, looking behind us nervously, hopelessly, until every evening became a Wednesday evenin

Little Max

11781178 views00 comments00 favs

“It’s not a bad preschool. You kinda get used to it. You ever been to one before?” Little Max asked the new boy, Sam. Sam shook his head no.

The Party and the Body

11771177 views00 comments00 favs

The Party and the Body The party at my mother's ended Saturday night deep into Sunday's morning. I tried to remember the exact circumstances of the end but although they wouldn't come it didn't worry me. I knew I would remember at a certain point. It…

The Nude Pianist: A Novel: Chapter 55

11771177 views44 comments22 favs

The rising sun was hidden from his eyes by the hips of the woman next to him in the bed.

Music and Books

11771177 views33 comments44 favs

You're all I've got to keep me company, but it's a very fine company. So familiar, and warm as any cold digital fireplace. I can tell you've got more in your story, but it doesn't make you happy. I really do not feel well today. Fun I wanted to…

Past Brutalities

11771177 views1212 comments1111 favs

Seven micros

Because the night

11771177 views00 comments00 favs

I glance back over my shoulder as you fumble with the keys. Repeatedly. You swear a little under your breath. You finally locate the proper one and the large door swings open. I hold it as you run over to the alarm keypad. You punch in the code written on a…

Playground

11771177 views66 comments22 favs

The Keds-stubbed grass, toy trucks without wheels, and Band-aids threaded in the sand… Most parenting is vigilance. Seconds ahead of its own sound, a passenger jet spears the heights not far above the treetops, …

Falling

11771177 views00 comments00 favs

She lets the book drop through her fingers to the floor and stares straight ahead watching the red lights streak by in the darkness. The train rocks her away from the seat and back; she rolls her spine along the plastic to absorb the motion, taking it away from…

When the Sky Was Blue

11771177 views11 comment00 favs

Michael shifted impatiently as his mom steadied the gyrocycle above the parking space. A rather blank, empty smile came over her face, and Michael understood. The Proctors were everywhere and where they weren’t, there was always a Neighbor who would be h

Good LAWD does that look like Malarky!

11771177 views00 comments00 favs

Tough shit if it looks like shit I heard that voice say as I reviewed my blog...How ya gonna fix it, stop and see every time ya write a line? Well FUCK YOU anyway! That's what my A.D.D. said - WOW! DID YOU SEE THAT?! - as it perched upon one shoulder, overlooking…

Wonder as the Sum of All My Ignorance

11771177 views33 comments22 favs

Questions unanswered proliferate/ across the April sky, blue// with wisps of cirrus white.

Ordering Chinese

11771177 views11 comment00 favs

And I'm usually soft-spoken.

robin

11761176 views22 comments22 favs

(v 1: I picked up a robin yesterday. It was red and puffed and in the middle of the road in front of the car on the way to the grocery store. I put on the brakes and turned on the flashing red light to signal my stop. I picked the bird up and moved it to the side of the…

Someday

11761176 views22 comments00 favs

and as in real life, occasionally sneezed on.

A State of Affairs

11761176 views44 comments33 favs

We could act the anthropologist.

Orientations within the Zwischenwelt

11761176 views1010 comments44 favs

Licking bowl and spoon taste and foretaste follow.

Opportunity Cost

11761176 views11 comment11 fav

What else could I be doing right now,Besides lying on the couch and staring at the ceiling,Looking for patterns in the colors and lines on the tiles?Looking for you,Immobilized,Succumbed to the siren song you sing.Lured to slavery,Yet you are free,Wild,Unable to be…

The Couple Who Loved Murder

11761176 views00 comments00 favs

I’ll give you a pair of grey cement pumps then into the river, your body I’ll dump.

He Invented Carbon Dating for Seniors, and Couch Potato Chips

11761176 views33 comments22 favs

I saw an older writer in a slouched-down Fedora, gray beard and long scraggly gray ponytail, who had empty chairs pulled up all around him, at the Loser Café, maybe for his imaginary friends, or maybe those who were already gone.

break

11761176 views77 comments44 favs

i just seem to be stuck is all

Barbed Wire

11761176 views00 comments11 fav

The end of love is a rusty barbed-wire fence.

Brand

11761176 views77 comments55 favs

Nobody buying...

Soil.

11761176 views00 comments00 favs

As individual as a shadow and the opposite of ‘stone faced’, Sidney Elvin “Ike” Liebowitz, with a clean-shaven face, well kempt hair and sideburns a quarter of an inch off of his ears, walks down a dirty and dimly lit street pondering sneakers.

strapped to the mast

11751175 views55 comments00 favs

The light streaming out of the background of things, in the absence of memory. That’s what I’m talking about. Prepare to let out all your light from night until dawn, if you want to be in the middle of life. I never wanted to stay at the edges. It didn’

birdbrain

11751175 views22 comments00 favs

feathered flightless freak of nature

The Year of the Horse

11751175 views1212 comments77 favs

“She's the year of the horse,” Metri said as he peeled his dirty head from the bed, his hair was as matted as a racoon tale. It was as wild as a wild animal and smelled like body odor with a hint of blood. He slid his scabbed hands up to his chest as if to…

Arcana Magi Zero Arc 2 - c.3

11751175 views00 comments00 favs

All Karin did was watch from the street. No movement. No reaction. She just watched.

Stumbling Grace

11751175 views88 comments22 favs

I'm not sure if my heart is breaking Or attacking Like an aged lovesick romantic with a faulty beat, I sense a valve needs replacing But only after the main artery has been sutured and made whole By a seasoned and skilled Midwest surgeon in a…

In December, 1998, we dropped more bombs on Iraq

11751175 views00 comments00 favs

This is between the two wars, so it surprises you when TV screens light up with this in the hotel breakfast room. You are in Delhi, you were supposed to fly home last night but fog canceled everything.