Most read stories

My House In The Middle Of The Ocean

20132013 views22 comments11 fav

I built a house in the middle of the ocean. I used sunlight for nails. Wind for wood. Stars for chandeliers, the moon for a doorknob.

Appointment

20132013 views1919 comments88 favs

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

Locations

20132013 views1313 comments1212 favs

They confess love for Karaoke and metal rock. They have purchased expensive Stratocasters and Zildjians.

This Thing

20132013 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…

Fragile Things

20132013 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

Halloween Hangover

20122012 views1414 comments1313 favs

Did someone say BOO?

Taste

20122012 views66 comments55 favs

I. Sweet Anthill The anthill is in front of my house. It started with a cupcake I dropped on the ground, frosting first. The ants started to congregate, carrying sprinkles and cake crumbs into the deep sidewalk crack. A week…

The Death of Narrative

20122012 views2323 comments1515 favs

“Why, you tell a story,” one young fellow said. The expression on his face said “How gauche, how passé!”

A Boy Named Suicide

20122012 views77 comments55 favs

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

Bookends of a Life: I

20122012 views1717 comments77 favs

You have transformed me into an aimless, sleepless wraith...

Three Sundays at The Grove

20122012 views55 comments33 favs

Now, gazing into Greg’s expectant eyes, the only Chinese word Deepti could summon was kuei. Ghost. Before that summer, her mother flipped through the pages of Maxine Hong Kingston’s memoir every day, as if she could glean magic from the touch of her finge

Girma Dali - Chapter 2

20122012 views00 comments00 favs

This is Chapter 2 of my serialzied novel Girma Dali. The title character reflects upon his youth and the young boy, Benga, who mentored him into adolescence.

Roper RTW4640YQ1

20112011 views1111 comments1010 favs

locking the door against dangerous// human curiosity and forgetfulness.

Taxi

20112011 views1616 comments1515 favs

lost in a taxi cab, 4:30 am

Cure

20112011 views2323 comments1515 favs

It's as if there are little men inside her head, wielding hammers.

Seed Toss

20112011 views1313 comments1111 favs

Know what you’ll become? You’ll become one of those guys who masturbates in any single occupancy restroom that locks.

From Beyond

20112011 views22 comments00 favs

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

When you were nine

20102010 views1111 comments1010 favs

When you were nine your head fell off in the playground. Dr Mort was called. He pasted it back on with PVA glue. You'd never know now.——When you were nine your arms turned into trees. Dr Mort worked his magic with the chainsaw. You still need light pruning once…

A New Notion about an Old Story

20102010 views1010 comments88 favs

A dark girl, quite poor, maybe three, maybe four, leaned on a statue of a horse and his man. (The rider rode him in place, but as if in a race.) Her dress needed patching, her heart needed smoothing. She'd tried to sell…

Roadside Daisies

20102010 views22 comments00 favs

The phone rang. Pete wiped his heavy eyes and squinted so he could see. He looked at the clock. It was five o’clock in the morning. He rolled over and tucked his head under his pillow. The phone rang again. He ignored it. It rang again. He picked up.

two dudes talking

20102010 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…”…

Songlines

20102010 views1313 comments1111 favs

When the planes crashed,when the levees broke,when the ground shook,there was a song I dreamed of,humming subsonic,a chorus of voices and prayersuncorked like the little brown jugthat holds all the love and memories.In the outback, Aborigines believewe create the world by…

Phenomenology

20102010 views1818 comments99 favs

The universe is churn-

Arcade Encounter

20102010 views66 comments55 favs

Looking over the crowd in the arcade is like looking over a crowd of zombies.

Luminous Nights

20102010 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.

DEFILEMENT OUTSIDE OF HEAVEN, TWO MILES

20092009 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—

Playing Possum

20092009 views22 comments22 favs

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

Destroy the Evidence

20092009 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…

Things Worth Saving

20082008 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.

Trust Walk

20082008 views44 comments11 fav

They were two girls walking home from school.