Most read stories

Query

12021202 views1212 comments99 favs

The murder of two teens late one humid night on a tiny rural Virginia island brings a dark, malignant mystery edging into the village known as Leicester Court House.

A Tinder Ghost

12021202 views11 comment22 favs

Do you know if you were actually speaking to me there?

When You Love Someone

12021202 views66 comments66 favs

you set the world in motion. When you lovesomeone you reset everything to glow. When you love someone you forgive the world. Everything is possible. When you love someone it is time to go on home. When you love someone you're reborn as someone else…

Jim

12021202 views00 comments00 favs

Jim twisted the skinny trunk of his body in a fast, violent jerk just as the cop grabbed the buckle of his left Harley Davidson boot. When the boot flopped off, Jim found himself sitting upright, ready to jump up and run. But then he felt the baton lock down on his…

Mom #2

12021202 views22 comments22 favs

We’d sometimes find my mother asleep in her chair outside her trailer at the nudist camp when we drove up. She loved her garden there, even with the rabbits eating her young tomato plants. She used to coax the bluebirds down to the railing of her trailer

Party in Sierra Madre Canyon

12021202 views22 comments11 fav

“You’re just like me,” she said, as dawn was breaking. “You like sex.”

The Book

12021202 views22 comments11 fav

“Are you comparing the communists with Hitler?” “Are you telling me there is no comparison?"

Absolution

12021202 views33 comments33 favs

Father, trouble me memory;laconic, idle, some glint on the dark. Recall us to me: what did we have, or what did we lose? Like some late affection, open me again, laugh it out of us. It is not loss I'm looking toput back together, papered over…

The new year begins

12021202 views22 comments11 fav

martyred young women lie in hospital beds

Muralista

12011201 views44 comments00 favs

For those in know know know there was hint of a wilderness Cadillac...

nestled in swirling chaos; pineal pinecone

12011201 views55 comments44 favs

Both my Nana and my mother have blond hair…as a child I thought most women of European descent tended towards this color, this particular hue of straw, and threads of gold woven together. I had been somewhere as a nine year old, I…

New Flavor

12011201 views33 comments22 favs

Billy fell into a bottle, and we couldn't get him out.

The Despotic Elephant

12011201 views22 comments11 fav

An elephant with fascist tendencies,And various exotic dependancies,Kept his eye on,That there King Lion,Frustrated by his monarchic propensities.He made plans to over-throw,Thinking the Lion's popularity low,But he was discovered,When his habits were uncovered,Which was…

Trapped

12011201 views22 comments00 favs

They were overweight, diabetic, and trapped in a cellphone dead zone.

Resident

12011201 views44 comments11 fav

You will know the country for fences, for feces, for cows, or, You will know the country for the smell of hay and manure blowing over the hills to you.

Winter-Logged Love-Fest

12011201 views00 comments00 favs

it is a wonder that we are speakingyou and iafter the fall season felt hopeful.Now the words mean nothingmy fairy has taken a vacationand women sleep with men in nice suits.

Lemon Citron

12001200 views66 comments66 favs

Here it comes at long last. We just can't do it like that again. We don't have the same time. But something's wanting something more to be more than this. Here it comes again. But you bailed on me the last time around. Went silent as a…

Thanks for the Unsolicited Advice

12001200 views44 comments33 favs

And what is it I’m supposed to do With all this unsolicited advice?

Enter Ghost

12001200 views44 comments33 favs

I love that moment in Hamlet when the Ghost first appears. It seems so real, thanks in large measure to Horatio's sober outlook & initial skepticism. It's really happening. Their eyes are popping out of their heads. And it makes me wonder, how would I react if I…

justice in obverse and reverse

12001200 views55 comments44 favs

seriously: let defendants choose their coin, / execute their own calls, make their own coin flips― / attentive referee, no need for a court.

Lift

12001200 views00 comments00 favs

He repeated Honey, I miss you. He could be cruel. He let their son chase his kite for hours in the park while he sat between two tourists on their way out of the city just last week. He could hear her now, running a bath for herself, forgetting John's Apple Jacks before…

Sunday Morning Series- Two: A Tender Faith

12001200 views1010 comments11 fav

feeding the lions, tigers

Conversations in a Chinese Restaurant

12001200 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…

Woody met Louise

12001200 views77 comments77 favs

Times were tough. They met out on the right-of-way on Highway 61 heading south, each trying to hitch a ride to New Orleans where they might find work. Albert walked up to her lugging a saxophone in a scuffed up case. Mamie had old cloth suitcase. After handshake bona fides…

Bohemian eyes

11991199 views22 comments11 fav

I know I was hungry. I was hungry for what you had to offer, your fast cars, your dad’s ski boat, your beautiful mouth and its pretty words, your Bohemian eyes and yes, for the joy you could give me between the legs. But I was unprepared for the lif

Botanical Maneuvers

11991199 views77 comments55 favs

They hunger for new real estate/ and those resources underground

Corpses

11991199 views66 comments00 favs

It was not my intent to be nosy. I just wanted to be the best neighbor I could be. Having never had anyone close growing up, I wanted to get involved and be a part of my community, such as it was. My only neigbhor was Edna Phelps. She was one…

When We Knew

11991199 views33 comments33 favs

That son of a bitch meant every word. Every filthy mouthful of insults that hit me was intentional and focused.

The Empty Stool

11991199 views00 comments00 favs

I walked up to the bar and sat down on the empty stool.“You don't want to sit there,” said the bartender.“Oh? Why not?” I replied.“It's haunted.”I laughed, but then stopped when I saw he was not laughing with me.“You're…

I and a Friend Eat Burritos

11991199 views11 comment11 fav

My friend and I were talking while having burritos (some days, it is as if all we ever eat are burritos, existentially speaking) and I was looking at the way he inserted that shaft of meat in his mouth and thought him prodigious for his technique