Most read stories

Squirrel Boy, You Are My Toy

18671867 views55 comments11 fav

unbury yourself from the silt and give me some seal love.

Red

18671867 views66 comments22 favs

Erwin came into the kitchen through the back door and went straight to the sink to clean up. Black mud and dried blood crusted his fingertips and caked the callused whorls of his knuckles.  He used the round of strong-smelling soap he kept for…

Barcode, Sloe Gin Fizz is Pink

18671867 views22 comments22 favs

Sloe Gin Fizz is pink Bombay Gin comes in blue I’m sitting here at Emerald’s And all I can think of is – you.

Clotting

18671867 views88 comments66 favs

Train travel is listed as a possible cause for deep vein thrombosis, a condition that causes blood to clot in the legs. Ray did not tell me this, but I looked it up later, remembered the disability status on his Charlie Card.Baclofen is not used for the treatment of…

Denmark (or On the Death of John Updike)

18671867 views1111 comments33 favs

The impression old Updike left on a young mind.

Just Another Hero

18661866 views44 comments44 favs

Alma Tucker settled into middle age with the comfort that escapes most women. Her festival queen days gone. Along with her wispy waist and cherry blond hair, replaced by broader curves and graying tresses. She was content with the way age had changed her

He's Just Not That Into You -Part I

18661866 views66 comments77 favs

“Too perfect.” my therapist intervenes in assurance, “You did enough, really. More than anyone else would.” I know the subtext is that I possibly did more than I should. My appointment is coincidentally later that day, after his goodbye letter arrives in

Cranshaw on the Road / Chapel Access

18661866 views1717 comments1616 favs

"Why so ornery?" she asked.

And her child

18661866 views22 comments22 favs

The mother was happy, though. She was happy because she could make him some soup and then she could feed it to him in bed.

What To Believe

18661866 views1515 comments88 favs

Being simple like this, knowing a thing is done by doing.

Chairs and Mirrors

18661866 views1616 comments1616 favs

There's a mirror in front of me and I thought it was so I could see myself, but I didn't want to see me.

Wet funeral

18651865 views88 comments88 favs

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

Cremains

18651865 views1313 comments1010 favs

I need a different storage solution

My Way

18651865 views1212 comments99 favs

We were over Casper, Wyoming, when some terrorists tried to take over the airplane. They had concealed weapons.

Arcana Magi Memorial - c.5

18651865 views11 comment00 favs

Azure became silent. She never thought of her death before, nor thought about actually fighting creatures and saving people’s lives.

Luminous Nights

18651865 views44 comments33 favs

A great doubt had shut out the light inside us, but each of us called for our lover at the end, and she was generous. Carrying us along inside her over vast distances, chilling our soul with sudden terrible flashes of light.

Destroy the Evidence

18641864 views55 comments44 favs

The oven door topples off of its hinges as she kicks and climbs out. She growls and quickly slaps out her still smoldering sweater shoulder. Taking a kitchen chair by the back, she swings it over her head and shatters the window. The chair breaks into splinters as she…

Here be Dragons

18641864 views22 comments22 favs

Most nights while in his sleep, with his one good eye deeply shut, the old man can hear the whispers of the specter in the remote wanderings, holding the surrounding woodlands in its snare. The sound of it closing in, with the bones of the universe crushing in…

My First Post-9/11 Dream: In Which I Discover Life After Death

18641864 views00 comments00 favs

January 3rd EST/January 2nd PST 2002 It's 1:45 am or 10:45 pm depending on your philosophy about changing your watch when you fly. My plane is scheduled to land in San Francisco soon, but I'm completely disoriented because I've just had my first post-9/11 dream. …

Cherry Stem

18641864 views55 comments55 favs

He moved his rotten breath closer to my mouth, like he wanted to twirl his tongue around just to see how it felt.

Out of the Loop

18641864 views1717 comments1616 favs

Ed wants to watch the last half of the football game. His wife wants him to mow the lawn.

X

18631863 views33 comments44 favs

We draw a treasure map in the sandwait for the waves to wash it awayI ask you not to leave me stranded hereIf I'm bound for hell, I don't want to be left behindThe sun breaks through the edge of infinityspills over the line, soaking the sky…

Bootstraps

18631863 views22 comments00 favs

I made my way quietly out back and sat in Helga’s whitewashed porch swing, listening to the first faint sounds of big band music drift out of Helga’s open windows and into the cooling summer air. The darkness was moving in slow from the east, interrup

Lule of Raw

18631863 views1919 comments88 favs

A discussion at the homeless colony under the expressway overpass crossing the river:

Physicist in love

18631863 views1313 comments99 favs

He saw symmetry, exquisite geometry, body and built world in harmony.

You'll Have To Come Out Because I Won't Let You In

18621862 views66 comments33 favs

the pollen of your kisses and the shouts of your love shaking the sky

After Detox

18621862 views77 comments55 favs

When detox-man drives away, the windows down, the radio playing on the classic rock station (The Eagles), he thinks about moving out of town.

Flirting With Immortality

18621862 views11 comment00 favs

That stupid bastard seemed to defy death at every turn in his life. His actions suggested invincibility, but his catch phrase indicated full awareness that he was indeed quite vincible. And how fitting was his name. We didn’t know if it

Bride and Groom

18621862 views1616 comments77 favs

He wears an old black tux, shiny at the elbows, and his gray hair has been styled and sprayed into a fragile tornado. On his lap sits a Chihuahua wearing a bridal outfit—veil and all.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation... When I Wasn't Drinking

18621862 views33 comments22 favs

This is what my summer has come to: me, out of a job, aimlessly driving around the city looking for places to write, places to read, places to occupy my time.