Most read stories

NOVEL EXCERPT: Jimmy Gollihue

20792079 views00 comments11 fav

Jimmy Gollihue awoke to the howling of a bloodhound, a long voice from up the mountain, and the baying of the dog pulled a keening lament from his dream of the highway.

Alluvion

20792079 views77 comments44 favs

.

Hail Mary Pass

20792079 views99 comments55 favs

so for penance, the priest gave me the full twelve Stations of the Cross

Cremains

20792079 views1313 comments1010 favs

I need a different storage solution

Acceptance is to her a phenomenon

20792079 views1414 comments77 favs

You were given blame for action as experience by cause and effect now. If you take apart blame and even forgiveness is too rigid. She thinks of that purpose as to give men sexual destiny.

In the Woods

20782078 views1212 comments22 favs

...a blunt thrust of a face, uncongenial in profile, and the ubiquitous green cap that says John Deere, with the yellow ideogram of a deer for graduates of our local schools.

Arturo + Lourdes, 2005 and 4ever

20782078 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.

Admiral Cheng Ho's Lost Compass

20782078 views22 comments11 fav

“Cheng Ho didn’t go just Cape Horn; treasure ships visit Australia and America. His very advanced compass. Not just point north-south. Show east-west too.”

The Captive

20782078 views1212 comments33 favs

....sees the beginning of a new day through the closed shutters, hears the guard washing up at the sink, feels the beginning of a cry in his throat.

The Nielsens (part two)

20782078 views00 comments00 favs

[continued from part one...]After sweeps, my schoolwork started to slip. I had trouble paying attention in class, and my workbooks and tests came back from the teacher marked in ketchup red ink. I had always been a good student, and this academic…

Something Strange There Is

20782078 views55 comments33 favs

Maybe God couldn’t find His bifocals, and that’s why my check for ten million hasn’t shown up yet. Maybe a stray dog in heaven ate my check. Maybe God went bankrupt like everyone else. Okay, so maybe at the end of life I’ll balance my checkbook. I do

Quiet City

20782078 views66 comments66 favs

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

Veins Of Crazy Water

20782078 views55 comments44 favs

People tell me my personality is a drug. Could be. My shadow is a spine. And I have the current density of copper. A welcoming face. Opium eyes opium thumbs. The piccolo is parenthetical. …

Human Frailty

20782078 views1717 comments1212 favs

Conceptio culpa Nasci pena Labor vita Necesse mori

Sociopathic Medicine

20782078 views11 comment11 fav

True love may last forever, but the most I've ever gotten out of a lab assistant is two years, five months, three weeks, twelve days, and fifteen hours. And he was the exception.

the last thing

20772077 views33 comments33 favs

salmon maple syrup horseradish smoke detector the list read, scrawled in purple marker on the refrigerator door.

Tornado Diary

20772077 views55 comments22 favs

The storm grew in might until it spawned the worst kind of tornado, an F-5 or Finger of God.

Rude Awakening

20772077 views11 comment00 favs

Vito suddenly found himself wide awake. He was unable to recall having fallen asleep or dreaming or awakening. It seemed he'd just entered bed, yet a glance at the windows told him it was already the middle of the night.

When a Bowl Hits a Tree

20762076 views1919 comments88 favs

You would think when a bowl hits a tree the sound would be fierce, a loud clatter as stoneware explodes on birch bark dispersing shards in daffodils and grape muscari, but the noise is gentle, a thudding clink like empty bourbon bottles rattling hollow in…

The bridge

20762076 views1919 comments1515 favs

as long as you have some snacks up there I can be brave

Swimming Lessons

20762076 views88 comments00 favs

The trainers looked at her and smiled and they were still one creature with four legs and two heads. The old man’s left eye moved in sync with the younger one’s right eye.

Becoming an Author

20762076 views1010 comments88 favs

"good luck, and be assured acceptance for representation or publication is based on different criteria at different agencies and we are sure you will yet find someone mentally deficient enough to give your book a shot."

forever

20762076 views2020 comments1515 favs

over tea & saltineshe read melike an obituary

Comes After Cato

20762076 views77 comments44 favs

When they called him down there to the morgue to identify the body, he drove behind the wheel of his truck like some steady maniac on a long haul. The Ford 150 cried out for new shocks, but that hardly mattered. Mud plastered side panels and…

Bison

20762076 views1717 comments77 favs

To make extra money, my father wrote music reviews for the Calgary Herald, and on Saturday nights, he went to hear the Symphony, or into recital halls to listen to the chamber music that was being performed around the city. He took me, once, to a performa

Lens

20752075 views2929 comments1212 favs

Night fell and the photographer slept, one hand between Prue's legs.

Helen O., Grand Central, 1959

20752075 views1919 comments1111 favs

No snippet to see, here. The piece is so short a snippet would be the whole thing.

Bitterness: Poem

20752075 views22 comments11 fav

Standing hard at the windowCold clouds move, slowBlue horizon in the distance—It's just a slice of blue.All this beautyI miss it in the bitterness.I'm consumed by the missingThe emptinessThe unfairnessAlways some unfairness cropping upand capturing joy.Glancing high…

Ingrid Bergman Answers the Call

20752075 views33 comments44 favs

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

Estranged

20752075 views1010 comments66 favs

He kind of enjoyed living by himself. It was nice and peaceful.