Most read stories

NG

10381038 views44 comments33 favs

So how do I know all this about Sammy, you ask? I’m getting to that...

Vintage Orlando

10371037 views55 comments22 favs

"Benny can't come over anymore." I was 12. Latchkey kid, but we didn't call it that. Mom working in another town. Dad working in another town. My brother. 2. My responsibility. "Why? Why not?"

RUSSIAN ROULETTE

10361036 views33 comments33 favs

“What the hell was that? Is that your take on The Deer Hunter?”

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

10361036 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.

Twister

10361036 views22 comments11 fav

“You know this is your death car.”

Tragic Love

10361036 views22 comments00 favs

So lie there like a sodden Brussel Sprout. Leave your paramour to thrash about in vain.

The Year in Blogging: More Than Just Sonny Tufts

10361036 views22 comments11 fav

1,919 followers in 105 countries come to this site every day looking for breaking news on the number of white kittens promoters are required to provide Mariah Carey at each concert.

re-homed

10351035 views1111 comments88 favs

aquatic, free-swimming or earth-bound

Flash Wk 4: Cartography

10351035 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…

My Right Arm

10351035 views00 comments00 favs

She's got that grocery store with one of them little ice machines with the polar bear on the front. She buys twenty-five bags here and I'll bet she sells them out real quick Saturday night.

Birthday Makeover

10351035 views11 comment11 fav

Iris is beside herself with excitement that the most popular girl in her eighth-grade class invited her to join her circle of friends after school. On the sound of the bell, she charges to the door to be the first out of the room and to race to meet Ange

The TV

10351035 views66 comments00 favs

The absence sits on the window sillIt looks like the tree growing in front of itlimbs long and crookedwretched clocktime passes like torn silkShe sits at the mirror looking past thingsHer TV blasts the newsconfront the questionCovid -19 The vaccinationTrump is…

Cognitive Patterns Somewhere on the Borders of Dark Matter and Dark Energy

10341034 views55 comments44 favs

At least the cephalopods on their planet manage to comport themselves with some dignity, as well as demonstrating some actual intellectual acumen.

Rules, Laws, and Restrictions: The New Society

10331033 views44 comments11 fav

#1. No chocolate or dessert ads of any kind after 8 p.m. #2. No names such as Wild Ferret, Backhoe, or Bunny Bacon allowed on the internet after hours. #3. No Smoky Motor Cars It’s the New Society. All will be well, after dark. Remember, only the

The Tertiary Stage (he probably thinks this poem is about him)

10331033 views88 comments55 favs

They say his irrational outbursts and insane rantsare the results of untreated syphilis. Well, thatmakes perfect sense to me. I've always thoughtof him as a tessellated spirochete, a narcissistic chancre,festering pustule of a blistered imposthume. And whywouldn't a…

Thieves, a Fire, and Some Pretty Nice Ghosts

10331033 views77 comments44 favs

All along scared of the lovesickness finding me. I'm not proud of sending that sweet choir on its way without a kind word chopped into its begging cup. Who cares? I'm scared. The problem is this house; it's sad. I notice when someone floats…

The Sinking Boat of Evolution

10331033 views22 comments22 favs

Living dangerously, I left my house with no glasses, no umbrella. I also forgot my straw hat, no purple dye for my gray hair, my map of the world to come,

The Theory of Color

10321032 views22 comments00 favs

The story of the black pen drawing a dark hole makes everything seem so elaborate and obscure. Or even a seven-year-old leading police on a wild car chase to avoid church. Or naming a new band Fuchsia, which looks like the beginning of an

You Are Now Leaving Czech Soil

10321032 views11 comment11 fav

He leans forward across the cafe table, holding both of her hands, and tries to kiss her on the lips, but she pulls back, making him beg for it. Then she kisses the top of his downturned head. Beg for it he will, and she knows it. Now he

Saturday's Heart

10321032 views55 comments33 favs

day dreams, at last! Timetables colliding, time tables alarm clocks Sunday stew

Rootless

10321032 views22 comments33 favs

[This story is not racist!]

French Trains

10311031 views44 comments66 favs

When I sit in the front-facing seat beside him, I feel him flinch a little and stiffen, not from fear but from aggression.

The Collector Of Twilights

10311031 views33 comments33 favs

I like to collect twilights. I fold them carefully and put them in my wallet. They fit neatly between the dollar bills that have a weird tendency to curl. This bugs me. I don't know why they do that. Something to do with the design of the wallet. But the twilights fit…

I Bought New Candles

10311031 views55 comments44 favs

The candles and my brain flame like a torch

The First Day on Snowshoes

10301030 views33 comments22 favs

I can hear my heart in this empty field; I feel it burn against the wall of my chest.

Politicouscous I

10301030 views77 comments33 favs

Were the coffee and gas not cheap,/ and in the case of the coffee, good,/ I’d never stop again.

The Parade Route

10301030 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…

Amalfi

10291029 views00 comments00 favs

He reaches towards the single, tall glass on the table between them and picks it up; ice cubes chatter merrily. He takes a sip and smiles.

Poetry for Cats

10291029 views22 comments00 favs

Call me crazy, but I like to write poetry. For cats.

Driving Over Front Lawns With You

10291029 views00 comments00 favs

I remember we were just out riding around and drinking this one night (Andy, me, Shel, probably you and another girl) when I purposely drove up on someone’s big expensive front lawn, then back down into the street, and just kept driving without saying a