Most read stories

Excuse Me, There’s Some Suspicious Activity In the Men’s Room?

930930 views44 comments33 favs

Someone has locked themselves in the large stall They’re smoking one cigarette after another And pulling long stretches of toilet paper off the rolls God only knows for what purpose And yelling for anyone who’s outside the stall To go get them

The Parade Route

930930 views88 comments66 favs

There will be no more internal birds like singing clocks, not like the lovely ones I know and still look forward to hearing, ringing like little bells in the church y belfry of the newly sprouting mornings to come, not unless the birds…

Happy Absurdist Halloween

930930 views00 comments00 favs

Sure I dress funny sometimes, but I have an excuse–I don’t give a shit.

Pictures of False Hope

929929 views22 comments22 favs

We were busy painting pictures of False Hope on the face of Reality. Tattoos really. But they faded with time. And I now know this: Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be. I saw an older writer in a slouched-down Fedora, gray beard and long sc

Existential Weather Report

929929 views66 comments44 favs

I had a moment of clear inter-species ideation...

Existential Weather Report (Election Day 2020)

929929 views77 comments44 favs

Later, at home, on the internet, I assemble fragments of street celebrations from cities one coast to the other. I watch them and listen in the compressed fidelity of computer speakers. How strangely things feel.

From the Writer's Diary

929929 views11 comment11 fav

I must pause in his discourse to step outside and relieve myself...

A Tribute To “Tornado At The Club,” From Evan S. Connell’s MRS. BRIDGE

928928 views33 comments22 favs

I’d been listening to the radio. Tornado watch! Heading this way! 75 miles per hour! I don’t like to alarm the guests; a false alarm to these people could cost my job, but so could ignoring real danger.

You Couldn't Pay For a Review This Good, But I Did

928928 views1010 comments00 favs

I’ve previously tried the old-fashioned route to get my books reviewed, calling up editors, asking friends who work at newspapers and magazines to put in a good word for me, stalking . . . I mean, contacting freelancers.

Flash Wk 4: Cartography

928928 views00 comments00 favs

The surveyor began at the mouth of the Klamath and worked his way toward the mining camp. He'd expected to find a trail, but for most of the way he hacked through dense underbrush. The river shrubs clambered into the water, just skimming its surface. There were…

Five Million Yen: Chapter 16

928928 views00 comments00 favs

He looked for Arris among the patrons. There were a few artist types and professional drinkers at the bar. Only two tables had customers. Arris was not among them.

The Turkey and the Tall Tree

927927 views88 comments55 favs

The bench was set by the waterMarbleAnd dedicated to a man etched his name,the year he was born,and the year he died. She had been suffering from a dark narcolepsythat reflected off the cloudsa lightening bolt energylike a screwturn screw and wrench.Door…

You Better Quit Your Runnin' Around

927927 views44 comments33 favs

I remember it was late at night I was with Johnny Appleseed’s younger brother Bruce Bruce Appleseed He was the lead singer for the band Fake Moustache Turns out he was just a bum Set on vibrate Who’d bought a 10-gallon hat once But h

O'Hare International Peoplewalk Tunnel

927927 views55 comments55 favs

At step blinding speed we all alight somewhere in the world

Imagination Factory

927927 views55 comments11 fav

I sit in a small office amongst a huge pile of letters picking out individuals and arranging them on a big square made of something like paraffin

Orientations within the Zwischenwelt

926926 views1010 comments44 favs

Licking bowl and spoon taste and foretaste follow.

They

926926 views00 comments00 favs

They had been part of the world for as long as he knew, but they were still an enigma to Timothy. They had an origin but he did not know what it was or what they were. They were both the source and the outcome. They generated and spread the information.

Consecutive Transplants

926926 views11 comment00 favs

The heart has always been on the sleeve Tonya really needed a heartShe was too young to knowNever forgetting itMichele found it in paradiseBut didn't know what to do with itWatched it fade awayBobbi could have easily had it foreverBut left it on the…

Five Million Yen: Chapter 14

926926 views00 comments00 favs

-There are a lot of guys would pay cash money to be in his position. -Biteman, do you mean homeless and no ID, or married to Zoë Bontemps for three years? -Both. Biteman gave a loud chortle.

the break up

926926 views00 comments00 favs

Well I, for one, knew immediately what these great muffled sobs were coming from the parking lot behind our apartment complex. This stud named Clint was dumping one of his girlfriends, again. Exactly how many were there? Could have been a dozen, for all

Small Talk

925925 views00 comments00 favs

Popping in to buy a tire gauge. Stumbling, drunk, on your way to buy cigarettes with two cops coming in behind you. You hold the door.

Holden Caulfield and his Crummy Band

925925 views33 comments00 favs

Holden Caulfield starts a band call Crummy He’s jumping around the stage swearing at everything, every damned thing in his oversized raincoat that he never ever takes off for any reason including when there’s the slightest possibility of having sex

By the Time the Oceans Rise

925925 views88 comments66 favs

By the time the oceans rise/ enough for Kansans to care about,

East

925925 views55 comments44 favs

We went east. It wasn't all that easy, but easier than staying where we were, unable to freely move or give birth to anything brand new. We went east insearch of the mysterious faraway beginnings of a mythical wild west. We went east becauseit…

You're Never Going to Break My Heart

925925 views22 comments22 favs

Like any lovable lump of hidden rocks, these hills she breathes life into, blinking existence, are all well worth jumping up and over again and again. Just ask the little kids. Their endless landscape of discovery…

How It Started

925925 views11 comment00 favs

At two AM I went to bed, and the mill shut down shortly after. The silence jerked me out of sleep so fast I almost screamed. Choking and sweating, I lay there and tried to figure out why I was so scared. And then I realized: for the first time in half a y

Humans [a screenplay-in-progress]

925925 views00 comments11 fav

She BENDS over and retrieves a bag that says POTATO CHIPS on it. Her dress is vaguely sweaty.

Going Commando

925925 views11 comment11 fav

I have the fear of comedy I have the laughter of war I have the need of a commando To come sack and ransack us Over and over again, O I am a pillow, a rock, an ant A soft Southern deer in the headlights I have the mask of Anonymity Lyi

An Idiot is Never Worth Your Time or More Mythomania for Your Buck An Idiot is Never Worth Your Time or More Mythomania for

925925 views00 comments00 favs

"It's a true saying then, that 'it's never worth while speakingto an idiot,'" answered Smerdyakov firmly, looking significantlyat Myshkin." - Dostoevsky "Why are you telling everyone that you are going to Tchermashnya, so that you think you're going to Moscow, when you…

The Summer Of My Beautiful Idiocy

924924 views77 comments66 favs

In the summer of '68 my father persuaded me to go visit my grandparents on their farm in North Dakota. I had long hair and dressed like a French symbolist outlaw. Took the train to Minot, spent the night in a hotel (watching Your Cheatin' Heart, movie about Hank…