Most read stories

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

19441944 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…

Heart Line

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One sunny morning, a big-bellied ball of yellow fur surveyed a yard full of prospective adopters and ran straight to one. She’d been chosen.

Quiet City

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

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…

Estranged

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

Wet funeral

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I know now, how she moves without verbs after you crushed her into the river.

Amiaivel

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Once upon a time a queen was blessed with twin sons, which she named Nosch and Amiaivel.

Auto Imperative

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I drove to you in April / and you loved me all through Illinois

Baked Beans

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mundane tradition

No Title

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She spilled her neurons across the dissecting board of the violin, breathed deep and forced herself outward with every exhalation. Her molecules mixed with wax and horsehair, and her heart valves arched in unison.

Around a Sun Named Inferno

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The stupid suit made me look like an angel, which I hated. I wasn't here to save anyone's soul, not that any of the native animal life HAD a soul. If I have a soul myself, it is most likely in need of salvation, and in no way should I be cast in the rol

Glance

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I saw a former lover today, by complete accident.

the last thing

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

Across the street.

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When the talking's done, they get in their cars to go wherever they go, and just as soon as that last car clears the path, the yellow-cabbed trucks are back and the men get out.

Birthday Buddy

19421942 views22 comments22 favs

His birthday buddy was like a wife to him: they were born a day apart. This was coordinated, he believe, in the womb. Well, to be more accurate, wombs. She was due two weeks earlier but waited; he two weeks later but cut his womb-time (as the kids call i

Apollinaire's Trepanned Skull

19421942 views1212 comments77 favs

It was only when blood began to drip onto the page that he realized he'd been hit.

20 Things I Learned about Norman Rockwell from "American Mirror, The Life and Art of Norman Rockwell"

19421942 views88 comments66 favs

His middle name was Perceval. He judged the first Miss America contest in 1922. He saw himself primarily as a storyteller in the Dickensian mode.He claimed to be an illustrator rather than an artist. He disliked driving but loved to walk, and preferred…

Our Time as Men

19421942 views44 comments44 favs

Rhonda looks guilty as it is, don’t you think? That hair! And the unhappiness smeared across her face like war paint after a war.

Rule Out Euthymia

19411941 views2626 comments1212 favs

In her belief that Juni is lucky, Jade eases the horrors our mother suffers at night, not because Juni is stuck in a physical passion, but because the whole family and whole groups of strangers know what Juni is doing for sex.

two dudes talking

19411941 views22 comments11 fav

“What about this shirt?” “I didn't know Gap had an ‘approaching middle age pimp' department.” “So… no?” “Yeah. No.” “Approaching middle age?” “So…” “So?” “Soooooo…”…

The Great San Francisco Poetry Wars, 1

19411941 views22 comments22 favs

In those days everyone ate poetry for lunch. It was considered essential for your good up-bringing and mental health. We would skip a meal in order to satisfy our hunger for words. To hell with a meal. To hell with dirty politics and meaningless wars on o

Woman

19411941 views1717 comments1414 favs

When you move to the music of a woman

Moon collar

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I don't think dogs like to die with the pack. The smell of them rotting brings trouble in the wild,

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (Update)

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A group of scientists in San Francisco struggle to stay alive in the aftermath of a plague that is wiping out humanity, while Caesar tries to maintain dominance over his community of intelligent apes.(IMDB synopsis) That's the idea swimming so far as it is in…

Moon Over L.A.

19401940 views88 comments88 favs

The moon begins to rise over L.A. while the roaches try to crawl up the sides of the mountains surrounding the L.A. Basin. While fires rage in the forests of the night, here comes the moon over the horizon, big and haunted, pock-marked and coo

From Time To Infinity

19391939 views55 comments22 favs

On some evenings, when I would sneak out of my room, I'd sit on the verandah and count the streetlights. I'd count the stars in the sky and trace the moon with the tip of my finger and consider how anyone could make it through the night when there were so

Macarena Lithuania

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At dinner in Marrakech, Namid danced on the table, waving a white napkin, propelled by jetlag and poor judgment.

A life in books

19391939 views77 comments33 favs

Forget Ulysses, life itself is a stream of consciousness if you ever have time to get out of the stream and take a look at it. And there’s nothing that gets you out of the stream like a short sharp shock.

chet baker

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chet baker shades my eyes rippling through the cool water sometimes we feed the fish

Snuggie your Life Away

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Who is the moron that invented the Snuggie?