Most read stories

Humuhumunukunukuapua'a

22942294 views11 comment11 fav

We do not say to the fish, “How do you pronounce your name?” For its name is long and colorful, like the rainbow. We can pound the kalo plant into sweetened poi before it answers.

Real Estate

22942294 views4141 comments1111 favs

He drove down there in his truck the second time. Didn't want to get anywhere near that snooty car of hers.

Working Without a Net

22932293 views00 comments00 favs

The next day, John's kneecaps looked like Tennessee Pride Real Country Sausage. The bandage on his head kept coming loose, having to be tucked in, and he was suffering the Stone Mountain of hangovers.

A Body Divided, 2

22932293 views33 comments00 favs

I came down with polio on September 15, 1953, a mild, smoky day drawing close to autumn outside of Chicago — which also happened to be the exact date of my parents' twenty-first wedding anniversary. Only six months later the Salk vaccine was already b

Po-cash

22932293 views1515 comments77 favs

“Black is up, red is down,” I said, knowing he turned to pleasant memories of lawbreaking when he felt discouraged. I asked him to meet me for coffee. He said he hadn’t bought a coffee in a year.

Hotel Khadijah

22932293 views2727 comments1616 favs

"A prostitute of the Hotel Khadijah in Rahab fell in love with my father...."

By 4th Grade at St. Paul’s Elementary, No One Believes in the Spanking-Machine-in-the-Closet of Sister Alice Elenita’s Office

22912291 views99 comments99 favs

Arthur farts. Pandemonium. Miss O'Kelly shouts, “Quiet!” 32 nine year-olds freeze. “Close your books, fold your hands on your desk, put your heads down.” Obedience. Silence. Until…

Dead Man Sleeping

22912291 views44 comments11 fav

Joyce Addleberg hated sleeping alone, so when her husband died in his sleep one night, it was only natural that she kept him around.

The Experience

22912291 views33 comments22 favs

I decided this time I’m going right to the end.

Bitter Orange

22912291 views00 comments00 favs

A poison bouquet of Merlot and brown floor muck bloomed in Seth’s nose. It’s one thing to sniff a freshly decanted red and another thing to shower in it.

Resurrection

22902290 views44 comments33 favs

Rudely awakened, confused and bewildered, he stood stone silent and watched me flee. I barely managed to keep my wits together, didn't and couldn't pretend that I wasn't running out of his bedroom as if my life depended on it. He wouldn't call me a cab,

Crown-of-thorns

22902290 views2020 comments44 favs

It's supposed to resemble the sea bed. These fish have never seen the outside of an aquarium and even if they had, they are reef fish, they'd probably get the bends and die if they went to the bottom of the ocean where the chances of them finding a cerami

Fake Letters

22902290 views2323 comments1313 favs

Dear Husband,

For Carol: Life Bursts Out

22902290 views1515 comments1010 favs

Life was small. It was tiny even, so tiny it was hard to see it sometimes. Life curled up to make itself even smaller, to fit into the kinds of holes that insects crawl into to get away from bigger insects. Life was sad. Life didn't want to be an insect.

An Italian Lunch (II)

22902290 views4141 comments1212 favs

Within seconds, I strip her free of all that she wears. Her toes are polished the color of plump pink tulips.

All Will Be Well

22892289 views1818 comments99 favs

Jesus will walk on the water. Judas will walk on a technicality.

Retreat

22892289 views1717 comments11 fav

We are in search of free hor d’oeuvres, me and Jane – Jane from H.R., Jane who is exactly as plain as her name implies, Jane, who, for now anyway, for this company retreat, is my kindred spirit in broke-ass hangover land.

The Big Cross

22892289 views22 comments11 fav

I hope you and asshole are having a good time.

Valley Rugstore

22882288 views1414 comments33 favs

He hunched low and forward on his bike, his 14-year old self, flying down the dusty back roads of this Great Midwestern Land, his head full of the smell of the algebraic girl he sat behind in math class just hours ago.

Ah'd love to kiss ya

22872287 views1414 comments1111 favs

“What was the line in the movie Dad?...

Arcana Magi - c.7: Instinct

22872287 views00 comments00 favs

Her body shivered from the liquid and she felt loose. Her mind relaxed and a veil of pink mist covered her body.

Colin Powell's UN Clown Show

22862286 views11 comment00 favs

Not that Dick Cheney gave one rusty rat's ass about what the UN might want. Fuck those poop countries!

Smoke

22862286 views77 comments00 favs

We both lost our appetites, her sense of taste destroyed by the tide of smoke sweeping across her tongue, wiping out her taste buds. Mine was limited to the four tastes the tongue alone could discern,

In Her Wake

22862286 views66 comments22 favs

A piece of her skull landed here. But it fell off. Then I couldn't find it.

Behind the (Beekeeper's) Veil

22862286 views00 comments00 favs

While I tried to work calmly, internally it was a non-Zen zone. I was experiencing a major adrenalin rush.

Regret

22862286 views11 comment11 fav

Pushing his jeans down around his ankles, he knelt, and pressed his moist dipstick against my hole. “Do you always do this on a first date?” he said

Digging a Hole to the China Sea

22852285 views2323 comments1313 favs

Could sampans fall upward, sailing from the bottom of the Earth? If so, which way would their sails bend—up, or down? And would the strange China Sea follow suit? Would salt water geysers spurt from the hole we dug, flooding the streets of Seattle?

More Child Fear

22852285 views2121 comments88 favs

Women with tremulous breasts. Going down the swimming pool drain.

HUNGRY

22852285 views1515 comments55 favs

Quiet. You sit quiet as a mouse in the corner. Push a little doll around and hum la-la-la so they forget you’re there while they have the cocktail hour. That’s how you find out they’re killing Grandma.

Scrabbled Sensitivities

22852285 views1010 comments66 favs

It was fun, until he started winning every time.