Most read stories

The Intercom

19421942 views33 comments11 fav

I have never met Joe’s brother, of course.

Peripheral Anthropomorphism and the Fall of Troy

19421942 views11 comment00 favs

For Hector it was animals. Rats, dogs, fish, and quite often horses – sometimes even lions. But for Achilles, it was always dead bodies.

Suicide Rough Drafts

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The morbidity of red ink is almost entirely lost on the playfulness of Snoopy stationary. But I boldly pressed on with my darkest thoughts to strengthen the effort of my offbeat creative exercise.

When I Lived There.

19421942 views77 comments55 favs

When I was fifteen and we were moving to Mississippi, my boyfriend in Canada told me I was going to live in the swamp with the alligators. I didn’t understand why my father would pick such a hick place. Rob gave me his cricket bat to hang over my bed, a

Dust and Blood

19421942 views22 comments00 favs

A black wind raced ahead of the Merbreth and Juko could smell the thing's fur, matted with the blood of men. The coppery scent mingled with the fear coming off the men around him, a fear so palpable it became a tangible thing, something to be tripped over

Cast Off Thy Suffering

19421942 views1616 comments44 favs

Somewhere along tomorrow, I will forget I have the right to do this.

Two Trees

19421942 views3636 comments2626 favs

I watch my mother and my daughter, each wondering in her own quiet way about where this story will go next.

(5) Forgiveness

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“Charlie was right about you, Nan,” she said in a voice of pure defeat. “You are a gentle spirit. And probably too good for people like us.”

Hold Your Shield, Front Guard

19411941 views00 comments00 favs

Casting nets like Jesus to a metaphor sea Admittedly as weak as me But I need the hike, Like we still like Ike To tell us about the Military Industrial Complex Though he never told us what came next

Sam and the Planets

19411941 views66 comments22 favs

No, she hated the vain, overweight, pathetic, glass-of-merlot-a-day, SUV piloting, Carmen-cell-phone-ring-toned, housewives and consumer sluts that charged through the store like starving hyenas through the fallen, decaying, putrid, corpses of a plague-ri

The New Meow

19411941 views44 comments11 fav

I'm delighted to report that I've come up with my own school of thought. It's called, "Dress Like a Cat Until You Get What You Want."

The Heron

19411941 views1010 comments1010 favs

Bob’s thoughts drift back to bird, the solitary creature in the field, dignified, unhurried, waiting. Bob wonders where he goes; surely he will move on when spring gives way to summer.

20th Century Anna

19411941 views77 comments44 favs

Why can't you mimic your mythical counterpart? Anna Karenina? Have you never considered the tall dark stranger? The boot to the face, the fangs on the neck? Vronsky is Russian Gentry, a veritable prince and he swept that Anna off her feet in two sec

Purveyors of Leeches

19411941 views1616 comments1313 favs

I am a purveyor of leeches. All my friends are purveyors of leeches. We meet weekly to compare our wares.

Arturo + Lourdes, 2005 and 4ever

19401940 views44 comments22 favs

Here’s the story as compiled from the scantest of clues: The writing on the back of a stall door in the restroom of a twenty-four hour restaurant under the Gowanus Expressway.

Those (Beckoning) Lights

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The understanding we made was neatly wrapped up in its own blue tissue cocoon like a neatly rolled joint and dumped unceremoniously into the forgotten past like a plate of leftover digitized lies. The lid was slammed shut. Time passes too tightly. And you …

This Is Who I Am

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I'm not interested in her that way.

My Affair With Tiger

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Face it girls, you want to claw my eyes out, don’t you? Or whack me across my 36 DD’s with a golf club, am I right? Well don’t blame me if I’m young, gorgeous, full-breasted and obviously the cat’s meow.

Courage Under Fire

19401940 views55 comments33 favs

Once upon a time, my friend and I met a nanny pushing a baby carriage and reading an e-book. She wore a plaid dress, blue stockings and a white barrette. A set of wrinkles marred her tanned brow. Multitasking seemed too hard on her. Inside the carriage

Improbable Bodies

19401940 views2020 comments66 favs

The book has known many women’s hands, something erotic and frequently checked out from our local library. Its cover depicts a man and a woman, both with improbable if not impossible bodies. I believe the term is bodice-ripper.

Talking about a Friend Over a Cup or Two of Coffee

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Talking about a Friend Over a Cup or Two of Coffee “Their first fight was over school lunches. Free school lunches. She taught Kindergarten in a public special ed center for emotionally disturbed children. The…

Bedbugs

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I'm in awe of her frankness, how she takes my breath away, how I wish to rush off with her to a splendid hideaway where only the two of us touch the grape-stained mountains and the cerulean sea, wild blades of grass quivering with the breeze. Sometimes th

You Were This Close

19401940 views1313 comments1414 favs

I don't know if we'll meet again in the sea of light. Circumstances aren't only up to human beings. After all maybe it's all drunk circumstance, but that doesn't answer the blinding question, it only poses some more. This is…

Butterfly, a novel by Julie O’Yang (excerpt)

19391939 views55 comments33 favs

‘So what exactly did you decide?'It was two years later that Sato-san put the question to me. The two of us had been hiding for two bloody years, moving about in the marshes along the river, living off small, skimpy meals. We couldn't turn back to our unit, because Cesaru…

HOUSE OF GHOSTS

19391939 views1212 comments88 favs

The blue Victorian at 1145 White Street shifts in its foundation, creaks, and settles in for the night. The girls are bundled into their beds. My wife, too, has gone to sleep. I’m alone in the kitchen, steeping chamomile tea, coughing phlegm into the wr

The Company's Sprinkler Heads

19391939 views22 comments00 favs

I am alive, and I am hungry. Angry, I want more. I am not content with what you're offering me. Forty hours a week, two weeks vacation. A mortgage and car payments. Wife and kids, a dog in the suburbs. It's all incredibly unexciting, unsatisfying.

Ingrid Bergman Answers the Call

19391939 views33 comments44 favs

Out the window is an empty birdbath, dry flaky concrete ring, no birds.

Quiet City

19391939 views66 comments66 favs

I hope you'll have the time to read this before your attention wanders.

FREE

19391939 views1313 comments77 favs

hot, hot

Miracle Bra for my behind

19391939 views1010 comments11 fav

Do you want an ass mi Nina Bonita? I buy you jeans that work like a Miracle Bra for your behind.