Most read stories

Fragile Things

20012001 views1010 comments99 favs

She asks me what she should do, and I say I don't know because I'm no good at handling fragile things. She says, let's talk about you. I say I can't - phone signal, you know. She calls me anyway, twice, then leaves a message saying that she just wanted to

Slow Train

20002000 views66 comments44 favs

In grief, I'd ride a slow train there with you, / one hand in yours and one hand on the rail,

Goodbye, Brother

20002000 views99 comments88 favs

My brother died in his sleep almost two months ago. He was 25. He was addicted to pharmaceuticals. Two days before he died, he fell asleep at the wheel and crashed his truck into a highway sign. It was the last thing he owned. He had been living with m

Appointment

20002000 views1919 comments88 favs

He stared at the mirror, his hair looked chewed up–severed by a miniature lawnmower.

From Beyond

20002000 views22 comments00 favs

Someday they'll find me face-down in a puddle of ink.

What She Left Unsaid

19991999 views88 comments77 favs

Megan beat up on herself later over the unsaid.

Golden

19991999 views66 comments33 favs

No flinch, no stretch, no letting the cook get all golden about the chopping block.

The Coming of the Apocalypse

19991999 views66 comments33 favs

The Operations Management Guru was visiting the twenty-fourth floor on Tuesday, and everyone at the company was wicked with fear.

A Boy Named Suicide

19981998 views77 comments55 favs

Came to admire Kiyoko Matsumoto. Japanese. Aged 19. Lesbian. 1933. Jumped into a volcano.

Boo!

19981998 views1010 comments99 favs

"Why didn't you tell me it was Halloween?" he asked. She shook her head. The doorbell rang.

Playing Possum

19981998 views22 comments22 favs

"You're going to have to call me 'dead eye' after I get this possum."

Phenomenology

19981998 views1818 comments99 favs

The universe is churn-

This Thing

19981998 views1414 comments1111 favs

I'm sure someone somewhere must havefelt something like it before. Imean I've never been able tohave this kind of deep longing asif you might want to forget everythingyou know. I always figured that funny stuff onlyhappened to folks in a foreignfilm. Not to some guy…

Breaking Eggs

19971997 views77 comments44 favs

You want to read, you know where to click.

DEFILEMENT OUTSIDE OF HEAVEN, TWO MILES

19971997 views00 comments00 favs

The road that passed through the swamp near where the cemetery stood, that is, the road that passed by the cemetery that stood near where the swamp lay—but no, that’s not the case, because that’s not the same road. If I’d been on THAT road—

Actor-Activist

19971997 views00 comments00 favs

A dark-haired, handsome man adjusted the headset he was wearing, leaned toward a microphone, and eyed his host, a curly-haired man with a toothy grin, who sat up straight as he received a cue from his producer.

Adrift

19971997 views33 comments11 fav

Picking up a perfect stranger—perfect meaning dead, in this case—and shaping him into the man you’d want him to be is not so easy.

Things Worth Saving

19971997 views1919 comments1717 favs

It felt like I was somewhere I wasn’t supposed to be, like I’d walked into a house that looked like mine, but belonged to someone else.

WITH A BOW TO DOROTHY PARKER

19971997 views1616 comments1616 favs

WITH A BOW TO DOROTHY PARKERWhen his fingers sped along the keys, I'd need to sit. I'd such weak knees. I thought him charming, tall, and able, then he overturned the table. Chili, crackers, cheddar cheese crashed on me-he'd been displeased. I…

Free Space

19971997 views1010 comments99 favs

The winner was some kid from Ohio or Oklahoma -- one of those states that begins with an "O" and ends with a yawn.

The First poem.

19961996 views33 comments00 favs

Then you stopped abrupt.

Miguel's Fence

19961996 views99 comments88 favs

Miguel's mom told everyone if you pressed your ear against the knot, Jesus would tell you special secrets.

Silent Summer

19961996 views1414 comments99 favs

It's eerie. There are no birds. My friend and I take our morning walk in a bubble of silence.

Physicist in love

19961996 views1313 comments99 favs

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

Martyr

19951995 views00 comments11 fav

The everlasting shone through when skirting the tenuous threshold of the two worlds.

Test Results

19951995 views22 comments11 fav

Six weeks, four thousand dollars, and twelve hundred miles later, I figured I was done with the cleansing process.

SantaBot, Can You Hear Me?

19951995 views88 comments44 favs

Mimi: Santa, I am so down with taking a number, but I really can't have you reading that particular story. Santa: Let me be the judge of that. I am Santa. I give presents to kids.

Babies

19941994 views22 comments11 fav

“Your brain, your brain tries to make sense of things like this, specially life-threatening weird shit, so in my mind the grass was on fire and driving out swarms of invisible bees that were stinging us to death. Invisible killer bees. You don’t shoot be

Splinter Off

19941994 views1010 comments44 favs

When we lived in the attic we were make-believe.

Shopping Mall Santa

19941994 views22 comments11 fav

The punk boys are my favorite. They come with an attitude, the piercings and the chains and the baggy pants with their underwear hanging out. I’m a punk myself, I tell them. The long white hair and beard? They’re real, my friend.