Most read stories

Urban Renewal

22232223 views77 comments33 favs

Bike shops, vintage shops, after hour bar shops

Arcana Magi - c.11: Feelings

22232223 views00 comments00 favs

The warmth flowed around her, and her heart beat at a calming pace. She felt as though the heat bathed her like water and felt her body cleansing within it.

Zoomba Juice

22222222 views00 comments00 favs

The Zoomba quivered in anticipation as the front door shut.

Why Aren’t There Fireflies

22222222 views2020 comments77 favs

There are hundreds of fireflies crackling along the tree line and the old stonewall.

Nothing Special

22222222 views1313 comments88 favs

I want nothing to do with anyone, other than doing nothing with you.

Don't Touch

22222222 views77 comments22 favs

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

Rosaleen In Mourning

22212221 views1818 comments1111 favs

She hardly twitches. Her face regards the stars. If her body is an object, it is the isthmus before global warming. They want to find the source of the glacier in her eyes that is always melting. Maybe they like a woman who cries.

Bert & Ernie: The Pre Nup

22212221 views77 comments66 favs

BERT AND ERNIE -- THE PRE NUPBy Roz Warren and Janet GoldenInspired by a recent Supreme Court decision, Bert and Ernie are finally going to tie the knot! Their just signed pre-nup was leaked to us by a Muppet whose identity we've promised not to reveal, in…

once upon a time in Sumeria

22212221 views1111 comments99 favs

Suddenly there was a crash of thunder, and they raised their eyes for the first time heavenwards. That was the beginning of what we call civilisation. - adapted from Prolegomena to Work in Progress — Stuart GilbertIt's the third year of the third millenium,…

Eating Grief at Bickford’s

22212221 views77 comments66 favs

Eating Grief at Bickford's · From Allen Ginsberg's “Kaddish” There are no places anymore Where I can sit at a threadbare table Pick at the crumbs on my plate And wipe The white dust From my pitch …

Proper Grammar

22212221 views1212 comments77 favs

Another thing about Dysthymia is how I get locked into a thought, a needle in a record of a song I can’t get out of my head, a song that drives me crazy until I hear it again, until I play it just the amount of times to where my brain is satisfied.

Revenge Is A Dish Best Served On Tiny Plates Along With Matching Pretty Teacups

22212221 views1717 comments1212 favs

The Gothic-filigreed gate creaks as a guard closes it behind the little girl in the ruffled dress. Standing there in the morning fog, on the sidewalk outside the reform school, she looks remarkably like Shirley Temple. Dimpled, chubby face. Pretty, party dress. Her…

Peshawar kids

22202220 views1414 comments1414 favs

a dark day

Undone

22202220 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…

With Ann Coulter on the Jewish Conversion Tour

22202220 views22 comments22 favs

A little bony for my tastes–I wonder if she’s on the Lady Di diet. I wouldn’t kick her out of bed for eating crackers, but it would be like sleeping with Eva Braun.

Close to Ireland (for the Paddy Group Challenge)

22202220 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.

Trees Knees

22192219 views1717 comments66 favs

A young man pushes a stroller filled with a sleepy child. A young woman strides alongside them, her gait leisurely. They are the first to visit the park today. The trees loom, vigilant.

Allergic Reactions #1: Sun

22182218 views1313 comments88 favs

Well I too woke up and felt bitterly alive once more;outside there was this shining fish scale attack sunliterally smashing itself against the window like a crazed yet determined yellowbird of paradise but it just couldn't smack through the little rows of…

A Necessary Evil

22182218 views2323 comments55 favs

But it was a necessary evil and one he’d made peace with, easy to do when he arrived home each day to the comforting touch of his wife, his home.

Passing Past

22182218 views1414 comments1414 favs

No one means to go that way, on an errand to the mall....

The Paprika Ewer

22182218 views55 comments44 favs

Valeria never whistled. Nor did she approve of people who did. One thing she had learned in her sixty-seven years was that people who whistled were crass. Butchers whistled. So did peasants.

Your Pajamas

22182218 views88 comments55 favs

Your pajamas torture us. When moist they uncomfortably cling. They have evil buttons, and they cause us to stumble on them in the dark.

Tracks

22182218 views1414 comments66 favs

The winter following their son's death, Mr. Kelly's wife became absorbed by the tracks that ran in back of their house. At any given hour in the night, he'd hear her in the next room, their son's old room where she now slept, shuffling through dresser drawers. He…

Empty Space

22172217 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…

Karma, Old Dogs, and Fine Men

22172217 views33 comments11 fav

“You people remember the thing you learned in science about every action creating its own equal and opposite reaction? The same is true in other realms. All of existence is continually recycled…again and again in infinite permutations. In other words,

Check

22172217 views66 comments44 favs

When Quince came rolling up into my front yard that morning, we were up to our neck in August, staring down a seventh-grade year that had crept perilously close when we weren’t looking. I’m thirty-five years clear of it now, and I can still sense Texas on

Unwanted Stories: A Public Service Advisory

22172217 views1717 comments1414 favs

Unfinished, deeply flawed stories require the kind of handling you see in movies where a Virus That Will Doom Mankind is disposed of by scientists in hazmat suits.

Gerade rechts zum Volkszimmer

22172217 views2626 comments1616 favs

So, we are all healthy but suffering financially, not equally so, and the tendency to suffer financially has been caused by humbling ourselves to particular men. We take a quiz in moral values, phrased as a party game.

The Tracing Game

22172217 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?”…

"Changes" Isn't Just A David Bowie Song

22162216 views1111 comments88 favs

Erin Hoffmeyer Zulkoski. I was at work today, doodling on a piece of scrap paper. I often find myself writing my name, practicing my signature, for when I become famous. I have always written "Erin Zulkoski." Today, I wrote "Erin Hoffmeyer." This…