Most read stories

Ordering Chinese

11351135 views11 comment00 favs

And I'm usually soft-spoken.

Arcana Magi Zero Arc 2 - c.5

11351135 views11 comment00 favs

Alysia saw her reflection in Suzaku’s eyes. There was an empty face looking back.

End of an Astronomer

11341134 views33 comments22 favs

Thanks Again, Target!

11341134 views00 comments00 favs

A tanka poem inspired by the CEO's apology and a 10% discount for the 40 million debit card numbers stolen at Target store since Black Friday.

Still Single

11341134 views99 comments66 favs

“Yes, Mother, of course I’m still single. No, I haven’t joined the Army. No, I’m not moving back home.”

The Heart

11341134 views00 comments00 favs

Oh, I cant stop singingThis human heart beatingWhat people say do not interest meAs much what goes on in their heartsThe heart is were they are really atNo matter what they saySome call it the IdSome call it the subconscious Some call in the willSome call it the…

Sounding Well

11341134 views00 comments00 favs

There is Truth in imperfection,Symmetry in distortion.Like a sounding well,You can determine the depth of me--PlumbTruthfrom myCore.Test your breath against meSay lies all--I will not believe them.Here am I,Proof Against your intransigence.But do not despair:There…

Soil.

11341134 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.

London Calling

11331133 views55 comments44 favs

Bloomsbury crowd

Lessons in Insomnia

11331133 views1111 comments99 favs

It’ll all make sense when you're sitting on an éclair chaise longue by the morning pool of coffee.

Because the night

11331133 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…

Smoker

11331133 views33 comments11 fav

I inhale the smoke from a burning cigarette held between two stained fingers that are not mine.

Joey's War

11331133 views55 comments11 fav

Joey tried to shoot the cop with his air gun but the cop sprayed Joey with pepper spray.

Biblos Melas

11331133 views00 comments00 favs

While laying in his hospital bed recovering from a minor heart attack, Professor Martin Hellman reads details of an ancient book he has been given for translation--Biblos Melas, or, the "Black Book." Excerpted from the forthcoming novel "Minion Web."

Saturday at the Pre-owned Super Store

11331133 views88 comments77 favs

We do not want to be here. Need ensnares/ and pulls us. We put on its tightened face/ which mirrors what each guest will wear

More Corpses

11331133 views55 comments55 favs

(I would cite here “corpse plumbers”, but I fear being misconstrued.)

Tuna Casserole

11331133 views11 comment11 fav

I remember when I pulled in the way the car door sounded When it yawned open. I think it may need some oil. In the dress you just bought, With one golden flip flop dangling from Your big toe -- The other under the bench, you told me. "We'll be having a …

The Choice

11331133 views22 comments22 favs

The bull had flesh of a deep red that turned black where the massive muscles knotted. Colt thought of the way blood turns black when it pools too deep. There was nothing but muscle, an intricate network of coarse fibers woven tightly and wrapped in a thin

Five Million Yen: Chapter 31

11331133 views00 comments00 favs

What do you Americans say, here is ze kicker?

The Game Show Support Network

11331133 views22 comments11 fav

Those who have lost at game shows meet each week for mutual support. All is well, until they start disappearing in ways related to their ill-fated appearances as contestants.

The United States Of Ammunition

11321132 views33 comments33 favs

I check the NPR news app. The story about the shooting in Pittsburg has already been pushed off the homepage. There is an article about yellow fever in the 14th century, a potential ceasefire in Yemen, players protesting the national anthem, a plane crash

The Nude Pianist: A Novel: Chapter 55

11321132 views44 comments22 favs

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

Blueprint for a tale

11321132 views22 comments00 favs

Remove with care, then slowly lay the string, wide well-soaked end at left-hand edge, to start, and allow to curve, to bend, to almost loop and wind its way at rest across the mottled, patterned green

strapped to the mast

11321132 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’

Punchlines of a cosmic joke

11321132 views44 comments11 fav

Creating a world in which no one believes . . . killing a world in which no one could believe.

All The World's Cold

11311131 views22 comments00 favs

An officer appeared and told us that we were already dead. We were already ghosts. As soon as you realize this, there is nothing to fear.

Gone

11311131 views00 comments00 favs

She exists behind closed doors. An open field, on the edge of a moor. Her stare belies her hardened heart. Her soul in fragments. She has lost faith.Never happy. Never understanding. Never accepting her sadness. She walks every evening at sunset. She remembers her…

Past Brutalities

11311131 views1212 comments1111 favs

Seven micros

The Nude Pianist: A Novel: Chapter 49

11311131 views22 comments11 fav

Francesco entered the gallery, and he immediately went to work.

Where Does the Foam From the Lattes Go?

11311131 views33 comments11 fav

Where does the foam from the lattes go? I'm not being flip--I want to know.