Most read stories

Lisa

21022102 views44 comments11 fav

She didn’t say yes, but she didn’t say no. She didn’t say anything. So I helped her to the car and we didn’t talk along the way.

Oklahoma, 1944: Howard Hughes Spends the Night in Jail

21022102 views88 comments55 favs

There's a drain in the floor.

Peshawar kids

21012101 views1414 comments1414 favs

a dark day

Two Poems:With the Whole Crowd/Apparently So

21012101 views1313 comments1010 favs

With the whole bizarre crowd surrounding us like birds on shit covered cliffs, offering up a bowl full of choppy seas to the many bored and stuffed sky gods, we danced our way into all their hard shell covered hearts as one thing. Still they never knew our hiding …

Something About Ireland (from FATHER MUST)

21012101 views44 comments33 favs

That’s the way it went all day with me—didn’t get far, didn’t see much, just, with Mary, drank tea here and there. A fine day it was, too; not cloudy, not raining...

Boys of Summer in Yonkers (Memoir Excerpt # 2)

21012101 views66 comments11 fav

I am coming to understand how many memories of my father involve him, driving

Forgetfulness

21002100 views00 comments00 favs

But the urge now is to unknow the urgency with which I forgot my self-description.

Self Portrait as a Drowned Man

20992099 views66 comments66 favs

The light, oblique and waning, filters through butcher’s paper to reveal a body suspended in death but never decomposing.

Empty Space

20992099 views33 comments22 favs

The house was empty now - silent. Each room was filled with air too thin to sustain memory. She stood, absorbing the emptiness, addding it to her own. Her footsteps were hesitant, reluctant to disturb the silence. She walked into her old bedroom - so…

Don't Touch

20992099 views77 comments22 favs

Frank must have said "don't touch" about a million times over the course of the day

Double Entry [WORK-IN-PROGRESS]

20982098 views11 comment11 fav

"Geez," I thought, "not only is this daredevil felon fellow my EXACT height and build — his co-conspiring gal-pal must be, too!" I exhaled what felt like a gallon’s worth of air though my nose. "This is just getting too fucking weird ..."

Ecce viator : Behold the Traveler

20982098 views22 comments00 favs

The snake glides unhurriedly through the garden one warm July afternoon looking for a schmoose. Or barring such pleasant daytime passage, a shady snoozing spot. He twines himself about the gravid apple tree’s trunk caduceus-like, slithering his handsom

The Duck, the Clock, and the Condom

20982098 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…

I Happen To Think I Have A Great Face, Actually

20982098 views1313 comments1111 favs

For those of you with a position cemented firmly to the contrary, I happen to think I have a great face, actually. My face, maybe I talk about my body a lot, but my face is pretty great, really it is.

A Certain Boy

20982098 views66 comments66 favs

Every single girl, from junior to senior (and a few counselors too, I suspected), wanted to make out with Marty Miller. Did he know how drunk with attraction I was?

Confess another sin

20972097 views1616 comments1313 favs

.

11:11AM Eastern Standard Time:

20972097 views44 comments11 fav

"Make a wish," she whispered.

Parking Garage

20972097 views1717 comments1818 favs

It's that quiet comfortable darkness. One should feel it often and necessarily.

The Inkblot Test

20972097 views00 comments00 favs

“Regard this inkblot,” the Psych says to Worker 168. “What do you see?” Worker 168, a thin young women wearing overalls, peers at the inkblot. “I see a beautiful summer day,” she says. “A young woman, wearing a flowing dress, sits…

Secrets

20972097 views1919 comments88 favs

The one he liked best was a middle aged woman who didn't wear underwear. She had a terrific figure.

Post-Mortem

20972097 views33 comments11 fav

She threw the wine glass on the floor.

Bumper Repair: $129.95

20962096 views88 comments88 favs

They ask about WWII and he claims no kills...

Undone

20962096 views2424 comments2222 favs

Last summer our marriage took a direct hit and crashed into a deep pit with little warning when Millicent met a Facebook man and simply left, taking up with him, presenting him with my space in her life to receive her touch and this thought perpetually gnaws away, making me…

Godot, Go Wait Yourself!

20962096 views99 comments33 favs

a bone-crusher handshake

The Case Of The Limehouse Golem

20962096 views00 comments00 favs

Calmly I rang the bell for Mrs. Madison and sank with some relief onto the ottoman. In a crisis, a calm head and decisive action are called for. The housekeeper would surely know what to do.

Out of That Bed 1963

20962096 views22 comments33 favs

My father's hands were huge. His left knuckles gashed as a kid when he rode his bike too close to a moving train. When his fingers fisted around a glass, the scarred joints bulged from his grip like blind eyes.

The Tracing Game

20962096 views1212 comments44 favs

Shadows skipped across the bedroom wall at 80 km/hour. It wouldn't be so bad if people wouldn't use their high beams but it's the price you pay for living on a dark highway with low property taxes. “How do you sleep in here?”…

Close to Ireland (for the Paddy Group Challenge)

20962096 views88 comments22 favs

The closest I've been to Ireland is Conwy castle on the coast of Wales. It was summer, mid-way through college. I was naive and dreamy then. I wandered historic and literary monuments throughout England and weighed my future options.

I’m tired of being timid.

20952095 views1111 comments77 favs

“Later,” I say to the frisky crickets, verbal cash of the eggnog spa, spot of gum…

The End of the World

20952095 views88 comments1010 favs

I find driftwood, long, smooth logs washed up on the beach, drag them to dunes still wet from the sea...