Most read stories

The Grief Counselor

22412241 views22 comments00 favs

At first she kept repeating "I don’t know why he's doing this" as if the cops thought she was mixed up in it somehow. When they convinced her that all she needed to do was talk to her brother and tell him to give himself up, she looked hopeless.

Sundays

22402240 views1414 comments1010 favs

Momma’s hands smell of vanilla.

A Frog in a Well

22402240 views11 comment11 fav

Ikkyu liked coming over especially at dinner. I'm a great cook and even though he no longer needed to eat himself, the idea of a sumptuous meal and a nice bottle of wine appealed to him. We'd commune about the poetry of karma flowers, seafood, and women, he in his robes and…

Bert & Ernie: The Pre Nup

22402240 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…

Eating Grief at Bickford’s

22402240 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 …

Tracks

22402240 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 Untimely Death of the Old Forgotten Man

22392239 views44 comments22 favs

I watched haunted as my pearl tooth circled the rotten porcelain sink. I could feel my hair thinning and my pale skin suddenly felt too loose.

Undone

22372237 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…

The Planet Will Be Fine without Us

22362236 views2424 comments1616 favs

The planet will be fine without us as it was/ when the Permian extinction made the goo/ that made the Rockefellers wealthy.

The Yellow Wonder

22362236 views22 comments00 favs

Whenever I hear Adam Sandler's song, “My Piece of Shit Car”, it brings back memories. Notice I don't say fond memories. It brings me back just like the really bad backwash regurgitation flavor…

Yard Man

22352235 views77 comments33 favs

It seemed there should be more tongue, so I started more, getting closer, and disguising my interest as being personable and caring about the yard triangle.

"Changes" Isn't Just A David Bowie Song

22352235 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…

Godot, Go Wait Yourself!

22352235 views99 comments33 favs

a bone-crusher handshake

Wild Dreams of Reality, 4

22352235 views00 comments00 favs

It was days before Parker and I could even get up the nerve to look in each others' direction at the cafe. We kept trying to avoid the other's glance. But after a time things began to soften between us. I could sense it the day the tension began to eas

The Apostate

22352235 views1414 comments1515 favs

A crone dressed in black pours liquid from a bottle onto the egg. Whiskey. Gasp! The egg cooks before our eyes!

Karma, Old Dogs, and Fine Men

22342234 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,

The Tracing Game

22342234 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?”…

Empty Space

22332233 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…

A Necessary Evil

22332233 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.

Home in Biloxi

22332233 views1010 comments33 favs

Her father stuffed years worth of stories into the phone, a sort of begging: how the new dog rode in the golf cart and retrieved lost Pinnacles; how the garage’s rent was too expensive; how the doctor gave him new pills and how he had lost weight and cu

Red Brick

22332233 views77 comments33 favs

The child could hear frogs chorusing outside and she wanted to listen only to that. Inside her grandfather gasped for air and she tried to keep her eyes normal as he smiled at her and put the mask back on. She did not want him to see how much she felt like running…

Boys of Summer in Yonkers (Memoir Excerpt # 2)

22322232 views66 comments11 fav

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

Finger Weaving A Voyageur Sash

22322232 views1616 comments1212 favs

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

Subway Imitator

22312231 views66 comments11 fav

The imitator’s segue to his sad life story was, “But what isn’t funny…”

Samosely

22312231 views2424 comments1818 favs

If you’re not dead yet, you’ll die of something.

Dinner with Sam Rockwell

22292229 views3131 comments1313 favs

“I liked you best in Choke–you were sexy in a lazy, sort of ‘70s way.”

Arcana Magi Pure - c.1

22292229 views00 comments00 favs

Mayumi did not feel any pain, but it did frighten her. She slid her hand over her shoulder length hair and watched the mist cascade down her back.

Gunplay

22292229 views1111 comments1010 favs

It was when the party hit a lull and a woman wearing too much rouge was going on about her parakeets that Tom decided to set down his bourbon glass and pull out his gun.

Against the V(2.0)(revised)

22292229 views1616 comments1414 favs

There are simply no more words around me quite full enough yet to sort of cancel outthese more than emptied ones. I'm sorry. There might be some forever fields left ofcrowded purple flowers if you look hard enough but no mountain's majestyto…

The Gratitude of Bones

22292229 views1515 comments1111 favs

During war, as in any terrible time of upheaval, burials are merely quick words and a scattering of dirt, if the dead are lucky.