Most read stories

Bottles of Happiness

10351035 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…

Death (and a Girl)

10351035 views22 comments00 favs

I toyed with the idea of suicide, then quickly cast it off. Death wouldn’t be interesting. Liberating, perhaps, but not interesting. I hadn’t yet lived enough to die.

Topsy Was a Flip Flopper

10351035 views00 comments00 favs

Topsy was a flip flopper ... Topsy was a crazy complainer.

A Story from the Diamond

10351035 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.

headaches not worth having

10351035 views33 comments00 favs

this is one of those "there are two kinds of people" sort of things.

Cha

10351035 views00 comments00 favs

The windows aren't open because they are closed for winter, but Cha doesn't care. She stares through them while I stare at her.

On Strike in the City

10351035 views11 comment11 fav

The first day of the Steamfitters and Pipewranglers Local 175 strike was exhilarating. Every man (accurate; there were no women in the union) showed his support outside the Willgarden High Rise Corporation's company headquarters on Fifth Avenue, shaking unreadable signs…

Vegan Says "Kill"

10351035 views00 comments00 favs

....sucking my blood kind of draws the line.

77 Words About Nothing (Tangled)

10351035 views00 comments00 favs

You carved my initials into your inner thigh with a jagged stem -

Stationcity Drums

10341034 views11 comment11 fav

Deep in Stationcity they began to drum.

Brother Dream

10341034 views44 comments44 favs

It’s always daylight there My brother comes running down the sidewalk holding out his arms and calling my name He’s wearing suspenders. He’s gotten thinner in heaven He embraces me warmly wanting us to be friends I give up trying to resist

Schadenfreude

10341034 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

Swan Dance

10341034 views00 comments00 favs

The house stood quietly in its surrounds. Unnerved by the beauty that enveloped it. Green forest trees loomed round the house protecting it from the outside world and in front of it lay a sweeping lake that disappeared into the trees on…

Abundance

10341034 views33 comments22 favs

A young woman in shorts removes her sunglasses, putting them on top of her head in order to study the little girl sitting on her father’s lap on the bus. “I want to get me one of those,” she says, with her dark eyes smiling.

One Star

10341034 views22 comments11 fav

...somehow that light has found me.

Fun With Death at the Funeral Directors Convention

10341034 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?”

Introspection

10341034 views00 comments11 fav

The piss monster looks for clues of its childhood in the stains it leaves behind on the furniture.

I'm Just Not Interested

10341034 views44 comments11 fav

in making your sad blown apart hearts rise up and squeeze out the kindness juices ever so sweetly anymore. Tried that. Didn't work out too well, not for me, wasn't a BIG time of waste, but did eat up some important wee…

Washing

10341034 views1212 comments88 favs

Scraping the baked on Bar B Q sauce from the grabbing ends of the stainless steel tongs has my total attention.

Annabelle

10341034 views22 comments00 favs

Jess threw her books on the bed then grabbed a notebook from a shelf and slammed it onto a writing table. It made a hard pop gunshot sound. Flinging open the book, a page tore. Her diaries were named Annabelle. It was with a blue felt tip pen that she wrote: …

Feast

10331033 views00 comments11 fav

His long black lashes stir, flutter a wink. His eyes catch yours through the dark reflection of your face, illuminated from beneath by wavering candlelight. Reflection obscures his features; they become yours.

A Tinder Ghost

10331033 views11 comment22 favs

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

The Mad Ones

10331033 views00 comments00 favs

On the parking lot of the bar, two in the afternoonYou notice the battered car, dented up body of a Ford escort,No hubcaps, plastic in two of windows,It yells a story to youA familiar storyHead into the bar2 O' clock in the afternoonIt's a nice, sunny, warm Saturday…

Oh Captain, Good Captain: Part IV

10331033 views00 comments00 favs

Oh Captain, Good Captain I went where you asked of me But now I'm back home And things are so clear to me The liquors been drained So my eyes have dried finally I'm seeking her out So her voice can stop haunting me When I see his face I'll…

Fall From Grace

10331033 views00 comments00 favs

My usual angel fell from the ceiling and onto the couch.

Cockroaches From Heaven

10331033 views55 comments33 favs

Cockroaches may be falling through the holes in the floorboards of heaven, but we will not be disturbed. We are agents, free and clear, even if a little bit mean. I want to quit worrying about money, but the angels upstairs won’t let me. The

I am very few of the things I used to be

10331033 views11 comment00 favs

Focusing on reflections of clear lines on scummed glass, reflexes not quite as fast as they used to be, seeing things but not clearly, straining, these muscles worn out servos, grunting, can't quite bring things together, but why do this to yourself. More pointless than…

Sonnet II

10331033 views22 comments11 fav

When gratitude on lovers' lips rings false/ As flattery by courtly sycophants,/ Take care to well distinguish gold from dross/ So as to gild gladder remembrances.

The Forest, and Other Shorts

10331033 views1010 comments77 favs

I am not thelargest animalin the forest because theforest itselfis an animal but I am theonly thing the shape of me ********************************************** Faerie She was tiny and bright andwhen I touched her…

For Colleen McCullough

10331033 views22 comments11 fav

She was reading The Thorn Birds. Always on her side, in a pink cotton housecoat. The Buddha rested on his side. And drank milk. We drank plenty of milk, but, being Catholic, didn't know anything about Buddha. I would sit there. Piles of books were around. I…