Most read stories

They're cutting the catalpa tree (Catalpa speciosa) in Essen, Germany

23872387 views3838 comments2020 favs

They cut the tall specious tree storms snapped the night in two or three. At times they pause most piously to count each ring of truth, drive nails into the stiff cathartic spine, divine if this unseasoned cigar topiary agrees with its own everlasting te

The Creature, to an Empty Chair

23872387 views1515 comments88 favs

It is pain taking a form, Plato’s dream, born from your hands father that rejected me, giving me the color of abandonment, eyes dulled by isolation, a body deceased without life-giving touch.

Hotel Khadijah

23862386 views2727 comments1616 favs

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

kroy hearts destiny

23852385 views1212 comments1212 favs

r luv iz gud enuf 4 a tat2

Animal Park (Part II)

23852385 views00 comments00 favs

“Why have you not voted Mindeo”, Tidi squeaked. “Because there is a third way. If we stay only here, we will eventually be driven out. To attack the erect worms to extend our…

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

23852385 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…

I Must Slip The Batman a Fin

23852385 views2626 comments1717 favs

The Batman says it's his birthday. I take him at his word.

London Fog

23852385 views33 comments11 fav

I stumbled out of the Ten Bells pub, still a bit tipsy from the absinthe, but had a clear vision of what I wanted to have happen this night. The air was cold on my rosy cheeks, so I shielded my face…

Realizing I Have Not Moved From My Bed for Two Days

23852385 views99 comments99 favs

Quite frankly you are ruining my life. / I know you don’t mean to, but you are.

Grace for Mao

23852385 views2626 comments1313 favs

I greatly enjoyed imagining each wonton was one of my personal enemies and then biting it in half and pretending I could hear it screaming piteously as I chuckled and dragged out the chewing.

The Cool Report

23842384 views1616 comments88 favs

I didn't go to China, however. I would have gone there in debt wearing their clothing. I was afraid to owe even $4,000 (what I still owe) living overseas.

Ah'd love to kiss ya

23842384 views1414 comments1111 favs

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

For Carol: Life Bursts Out

23842384 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.

See Jane

23842384 views3232 comments1111 favs

Jane watched her mother remove her wedding ring with butter.

Postcard

23832383 views2020 comments1313 favs

A tiny story, 55 words, just enough to fit on a . . .

Frankie's Girl

23822382 views22 comments00 favs

Frankie's girl had a habit of making any guy she walked past turn his head and lose his entire train of thought-we all knew it. Frankie was the only one who asked her out to have lasted long enough and worked hard enough to the point of putting a ring on

Joan of Dark

23822382 views1515 comments1515 favs

What happens in heaven stays in heaven.

Better than Chocolate

23822382 views77 comments44 favs

Teddy laughs like a machine gun. People back away when they hear him. Every time I see him at work, I try to make his skinny body rattle. I would never back away.

In the hot seat

23822382 views11 comment00 favs

I sighed and looked deep into his eyes. “There is nothing more powerful than denial.”

I will be a child again

23812381 views88 comments77 favs

A child in a new world/ by way of the old I won’t remember.

Feeling Marlene (from OPEN CITY Magazine Number 16)

23812381 views33 comments33 favs

I got your card in the mail via my ex-wife in Saskatoon. On it you wonder where I am, if I am still writing, and if I have any stories I would send for you to look at because you think I should be published, too.

Crocodilian

23802380 views4343 comments2121 favs

it ate her and then I was next in line

The Saurians' Revenge

23802380 views55 comments11 fav

I’ve never liked birds. There’s something smug about the way they look at us, we prisoners of gravity, something self-congratulatory in their songs. Maybe I’m just projecting my own feelings about being stuck on the ground, attributing attitudes t

How to travel with your Demons (5)

23802380 views66 comments55 favs

She believes that this started with a phone call when she walked out of the deli yesterday. She believes that it started when it was snowing this morning in Brooklyn, waiting for her car to arrive, but the truth is, this journey began a long time ago.

Colin Powell's UN Clown Show

23792379 views11 comment00 favs

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

The Duck, the Clock, and the Condom

23792379 views99 comments77 favs

Every night famous authors read not only to us, but to a duck. A wild female who emerged from the lake just as we were gathering, settled her gray-brown feathers down not three feet from the podium, tucked her head inside her wing, and remained there. If the duck liked…

Fake Letter: From Your Gay Son

23792379 views33 comments11 fav

Dear Mom, You told me the connection between a mother and her son is like no other connection. You carried me for nine months. You scheduled visits with the doctor; you thought and discussed and re-thought and re-discussed with dad what my name would be; you…

Moses Reborn

23792379 views22 comments11 fav

Influenza Jones knew she was Moses. Reborn, of course, because the real Moses had been dead for longer than Influenza could remember. It didn’t matter that she was a woman and Moses was a man, she knew what her body say and her body say she be Moses. Sh

HUNGRY

23792379 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.

Numb And Number

23792379 views55 comments33 favs

He looked up as he reached the intersection, and crossed as it cleared. His head was down again as he walked toward his car, which was parked beside a schoolyard, where junior high students were involved in an after-school game of touch football. He smi