Most read stories

Writer's Block? Get Nacreous!

10801080 views33 comments11 fav

If you have writer’s block, it may be because your childhood wasn’t unhappy enough, but there’s nothing you can do about that now, is there?

A New Woman

10801080 views11 comment11 fav

George didn’t move when Cindy punched him in the nose. He just stood up and walked to the fridge, poured a glass of water and dropped a few ice cubes into the glass. The ice cracked in the glass as he walked back to the couch.

Saint Christopher Phone Booth Blues

10801080 views22 comments11 fav

I've got to stop it. This can't go on. I've got stop yelling at people. Dog people. What's up with dogs of a sudden? Why does everyone suddenly seem to have a dog? I like dogs. Don't get me wrong. It's unleashed dogs that make me go ballistic. One reason is because …

Josh and the Elder

10791079 views00 comments00 favs

A cruel reminder of his irrelevance to the world of law, a world he had probably ruled for over 40 years.

Secondhand: Four Inscriptions

10791079 views1919 comments1414 favs

To whoever reads this next--Henry James makes my head hurt.

Schadenfreude

10791079 views44 comments44 favs

It's 50/50 that you'll ever pad your knee enough to ever kneel on it. Your back hurts, the Orthapedist labels it arthritis. I think that means we're getting old, so I crawl up the tower of your body as I'm a little younger, more sprightly. You're a

A Dance at Midnight

10791079 views00 comments00 favs

The city was spread before me in a pattern of dancing lights, alternately hidden and revealed by the blowing snow. At this distance, it was almost beautiful. Of course, the beauty was an illusion, obvious only at a distance. If I stood here until dawn, I’

Skins of my past

10791079 views33 comments11 fav

The past follows, battered, bruised, always behind

Fun With Death at the Funeral Directors Convention

10791079 views00 comments00 favs

“How about licensed-character theme funerals for kids who die young?” I asked, broaching a sensitive subject. “Do you think they’re”–I hesitated–”a money maker?”

Puke

10791079 views22 comments11 fav

What the fuck is that smell? Puke? Pine-Sol? Oh shit!Back seat of a cop car.Again?What is it this time?“Excuse me, officer? Where the fuck are my clothes?”

ScarCity

10791079 views55 comments44 favs

I flipped a large cardboard coin On one side it said Abundance But on the other side it said Scarcity I went to the store And began packing everything I could get Into my shopping cart But the things that started spilling over Onto the

Nascent Talk with the Gypsy

10781078 views55 comments22 favs

She was having a laugh, but I didn't know what about. We were sitting in a big house that was on the top of a large incline. All these books were scattered around, and the walls and the kitchen, the doors and the quarter round and every other thing, was old and…

A Story from the Diamond

10781078 views00 comments00 favs

A sweltering heat sits on the field like a fog failing to move. From the diamond, you were able to see the Chicago skyline poking above the apartment buildings like antennas, sending signals all throughout the world.

The Time of His Death

10781078 views44 comments00 favs

…if something happened to you so horrible that you no longer felt like living, would it have been better if you had died at birth? Okay, that's probably too early. No reason to act in haste. Maybe you should die when you're eighteen years old, just before…

Cider Spake, BÄÄ!

10781078 views11 comment11 fav

no matter how many drunks I spoke to, no matter how many strangers I tried my new theories on, no matter how many of my, currently distant friends I out-witted and educated with my revelatory nuggets of wisdom, I still see no sign of impact on the evening

The Story Teller

10781078 views00 comments00 favs

I would read her stories on quiet summer days as we sat along the river, just the two of us stretched out in the tall grass, hidden in the shade of the pine trees lining the banks of the Mullica while a gentle breeze cooled our skin. She liked the way I read to…

Conversations in a Chinese Restaurant

10781078 views00 comments00 favs

I'm feeling almost better than you know A little bit better than the day before Waking up to a deafening scream Please, please don't hurt me no more Why do I feel like a lost dog? Staring outside the window pane How come I become dark? When the clouds begin to rain…

Nehwareven

10771077 views00 comments00 favs

In the switched-off time of day's blackest rest-

chelsea wolfe

10771077 views00 comments00 favs

exiled from hell where no torture could touch you to a cloud in heaven where no…

Ghostwriters!

10771077 views55 comments44 favs

(Sung to the melody of "Ghostbusters")When your prose is weakMetaphors clichésWho you gonna callGhostwriters!Characters they speakNot much to sayWho you gonna callGhostwriters!I ain't ‘fraid of no rejectionI ain't ‘fraid of no rejectionLyin' in your bedImagination soarsWho…

white lights

10771077 views88 comments66 favs

the little white lights i see mean many different things to me

Pink Slip For Mitt's Mutt

10771077 views00 comments00 favs

(Recently unearthed from a “Lost Luggage” travel trunk abandoned in a train station in Salt Lake City, Utah) Dear Seamus: Boy, we sure did enjoy having you as a member of our family all those years. I would have to say you…

The Weight of Need

10771077 views22 comments11 fav

In need of help, he bought his first self-help book at the age of twenty-nine.

Beauty Comes Trailing After Us

10771077 views55 comments22 favs

hat

Hell We Were American

10771077 views1414 comments1212 favs

We danced the pee dance after too much Seven Up and tasted odd Jello dishes.

Mike's Confession in the Basement to Being Allergic to Balls

10771077 views22 comments22 favs

He arched an eyebrow.  He was "thinking" — a tricky thing to do, when you never read, even the newspaper.

Teddy

10771077 views55 comments33 favs

I'd had way too many drinks. My legs were quivering. Everyone had gathered there in the kitchen, my sleek and attractive ex-wife the center of attention, all the men fucking drooling over her. Seems she was a yoga queen now, a vegan princess, a dancer somewhere. She…

War Garden

10771077 views44 comments33 favs

From the home front....

Anticipation

10761076 views11 comment00 favs

Two minutes later Alicia Morgan stepped out of her car. Her smile faltered momentarily and he saw that she assumed the mistake was hers

Bottles of Happiness

10761076 views00 comments00 favs

She sold bottles of happiness at the marketplace. She woke up at dawn every morning to capture rays of happiness in the air. She would jump and let her fingers thread through each ray before sorting them into bottles. She always added a red ribbon to the tops of each…