Most read stories

A Manual for Readers

20362036 views55 comments55 favs

The story will starve. It will crawl up your throat to get the cracker.

Wild Dreams of Reality, 6

20362036 views22 comments11 fav

The diner was half filled with the loose ends of humanity that stayed up until five in the morning. We picked a booth by the window. The light in the diner was a dingy yellow, and the seats were that lobster-red vinyl that could only have been installe

Rosaleen In Mourning

20362036 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.

That One Time We Were on NPR...

20362036 views1010 comments88 favs

Twelve people in the band, the two women arrive first (arrive on time).

Before and After

20362036 views3535 comments1616 favs

My heart beat someone up the stairwell.

Science Homework

20352035 views22 comments22 favs

The difficulty of disabled parenting was predictable, but nothing could prepare me for having to say goodbye to my wife again on problem #7.

A mostly true story about the Coca-Cola Museum

20352035 views22 comments11 fav

At work I recommended someone go to the Coca-Cola Museum in Atlanta. I told you about recommending it to someone. “I always wanted to go back there,” I said. “You did? You never told me,” you said.

The Serious Writer and His Penis

20352035 views4747 comments2222 favs

Only strong personalities can endure such size, the weak ones are extinguished by it.

Without A Trace

20352035 views33 comments11 fav

There, at that cabin, she had first tasted the back of a hand in anger, the sting of a horsewhip, bone-deep fear and, finally, an unthinkable act of self defense.

Corporal Punishment

20342034 views1414 comments1313 favs

When I was a little boy, I had a thing about women’s behinds.

Flash Fiction With Instructions

20342034 views77 comments66 favs

The protagonist’s story goes like this: 1.) You are young. You’ll get over it.

The Shop Girl

20342034 views1414 comments1010 favs

Just a little shop girl in for the summer. Working on a typewriter. Barely knowing where the keys were. That was her. She was terrible at it. He was in a suit. He looked short, and thin, but something about him was captivating. He was in his own way hands

Pieces

20332033 views66 comments44 favs

I find my mother’s pink Pyrex mixing bowl at the antique store on Fairview Avenue. It’s in the hands of a fat woman in a blue down parka, and she’s holding it upside down, squinting at the sticker on the bottom.

The Thrill of Sky Diving

20332033 views99 comments22 favs

It's not that you want to be silkworm all your life. That's what I'm telling my on-again-off-again girlfriend aboard the plane. Her name is Phoebe as in that song about a girl who lived in her own world within the shell of another. Phoebe, I'm saying, to bridge distances…

Your Pajamas

20332033 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.

Senior Center

20322032 views1414 comments66 favs

"Are you all right?" I ask. He blinks. He sits up. I help him stand. He looks sorrowfully at his coffee cup, which is on the floor.

Karma, Old Dogs, and Fine Men

20322032 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,

Round the World Now

20322032 views22 comments22 favs

It's true that he had always been more pure than her, looking for the authentic experience, authentic food. And more adventurous. Blogging their way around the world, yes, that had been his idea . . .

Countdown

20322032 views00 comments00 favs

I’m twenty eight years old, and I am dying.

Tracks

20322032 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…

The Ballad Of Sideshow Sam & The Heckler

20322032 views77 comments66 favs

"You know what a hobo is, my young friend? Or a tramp? Or a bum? Well, I'll tell ya, 'cuz you'll meet all of 'em in yer life and it's a good thing to know since they are each one of 'em different and the difference is this. Bums sit around and loaf. T

The Artist's Conk

20322032 views88 comments77 favs

Whenever talk dies, or darkness gathers too closely around the breakfast table, everyone knows the list of ritual activities we can brightly suggest to skip the day forward.

Finger Weaving A Voyageur Sash

20322032 views1616 comments1212 favs

Night's air awhirl, the sky shoots fireflies. Sometimes, she bleeds black arrows in her dreams.

Zombie

20312031 views1010 comments55 favs

If it were known that I am as stupid as I am, if the press were to open that page on TV, if the laughter shot itself like fireworks out into the road--

Hey Jude

20312031 views99 comments33 favs

I laugh too loud cause the world looks good that way and for a minute we both make funny sounds just to exercise our vocal cords and see how close we can come to the line without crossing.

"Changes" Isn't Just A David Bowie Song

20312031 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…

sunflower 9

20312031 views1515 comments1717 favs

born to be mistreated by beasts in human shapes

Routine

20312031 views2121 comments1212 favs

She could live there forever, in that smokey memory...

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

20302030 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

A Night Ride With the Girl Scout Legbreakers

20292029 views66 comments22 favs

It’s two o’clock in the morning, and I’m lying in bed, wide awake, drenched in sweat. I know what I need–a Thin Mint cookie–but I don’t know where I’m gonna find one.