Most recent stories

Hygga

884884 views22 comments22 favs

Hygga was on the French news tonight. Hygga is big in France. And Scandinavia, of course. I'd never heard of it. Hygga comes from a Danish word meaning “to give courage, comfort, joy.” It stems from hyggia, which means to think in Old Norse, and is related to…

A Journal of the Plague Year: Day 289: Valedictory for a Clown

990990 views1414 comments66 favs

the end of this journal

Wrong Number

704704 views33 comments11 fav

He tilted his head at his monitor and exhaled “No.” Minutes later, he tilted his head the other way and more sharply exclaimed “No!” Then he began over the next quarter hour simply to stare at the data stream before him, which left him speechless.

Clocks

891891 views66 comments66 favs

His hands are old But still function As hands

Short Blonde, Long Red

688688 views22 comments22 favs

Natalie blushed the vodka with an almost pointless twist of the fruit juice as I fought in my inside jacket pocket for my wallet...

jewels

10861086 views1919 comments99 favs

it is said to make your manliness last forever

Sisyphus takes the day off

943943 views55 comments55 favs

what-ta-hell, fuck this he snorts brushing the dust from his shoulders

More About Nils Whose Real Name is Georges

25852585 views1414 comments1010 favs

I think he viewed Communion as an act of hygiene that allowed him to go on being fiery and self-determined.

No More Ideas

948948 views22 comments11 fav

And then, one fateful day, the world ran out of ideas. The last one was gone, floating away like a balloon full of the helium we had already squandered.

The TV

834834 views66 comments00 favs

The absence sits on the window sillIt looks like the tree growing in front of itlimbs long and crookedwretched clocktime passes like torn silkShe sits at the mirror looking past thingsHer TV blasts the newsconfront the questionCovid -19 The vaccinationTrump is…

decades since minutes with moments to

663663 views33 comments22 favs

the drive-ins now are dead and gone / where once we laught through splatter films: / our screens too small, our horrors do not fit— / no monumental screens are left, / no close-ups show us what we think we fear.

Stableford

11391139 views00 comments00 favs

Mike Summer's moustache was perfect. Hard bristle and so symmetrical it looked cut to the angles of a military imperative. He was pretty proud of it, thought the team of beaters, who watched him as he sat on the boot ledge of his sage green Mercedes 123 T, combing…

Dear Credit Card Thief

845845 views44 comments22 favs

Dear Credit Card Thief, I think of you—hunched, green cast, a zombie of the ephemeral, greedily parsing code, stealth hands like a lover's over my plastic doppelgänger, wafer of identity, your key to the internet of things, to me. Did you have a pleasant…

it

13381338 views55 comments55 favs

where will we be/ when it happens?

Rock the Rhombi

11021102 views1111 comments88 favs

This is the place you need a third hand

Sparrow

953953 views22 comments22 favs

I don't care what my reincarnated self thinks about today. I'm already aware that everything stinks in the end. Well. It's supposed to. But all things must seek travel while they can. Dance while they can. Dream while they can. Laugh while they can.…

Mirror, Handheld

10221022 views1414 comments1515 favs

the making by taking away

Up

870870 views22 comments11 fav

See if you can come up with the pattern. There is very little run-up to the theme. I am not making this up...

The Noise

13041304 views77 comments55 favs

I'm hearing a noise. I can't see it. It's hiding and seems to be coming from the other side of the creek. With boots on I slowly wade across. The water makes its light lapping sounds. Reaching the bank, I search for the noise. It must have a face, suntanned and warm, that I…

Пушкин и Baudelaire, via странников

10431043 views55 comments44 favs

—but night does not reduce me to sleep / the dragging minutes keep awake / the dark that only opens its deep . . .

Drifting

11071107 views1212 comments66 favs

it's all a bit like the quiet steam drifting to nowhere off my microwaved hot coffee in the sunflower mug

My Secret Pen Pal

610610 views11 comment11 fav

What if I let it be known that I've been enjoying a heavy correspondence with Queen Elizabeth my entire life? We began the correspondence on the very day she was coronated. February 6th, 1952. I was four years old and working as a bartender in Cheyenne, Wyoming. …

I Can Sacrifice My Self

691691 views00 comments00 favs

The sacrificial tendency is a real ugly one A pound of flesh, because it grows back But gnarled and scarred For you, So you may smile or cry Whatever you need How about an ounce of truth? How about I make a maze And you walk through…

Testosterone

958958 views1010 comments55 favs

"All he wants to do is watch the Hallmark Channel"

Heirloom

674674 views22 comments22 favs

“Have the tomatoes come in yet?”“Dottie…”Mrs. Dorothea Tilden pointed a trembling finger at Harriet.“You promised me tomatoes, Harry.”Harriet put her hands on her hips, a stance Dorothea knew well. One more sharp word meant fight; two…

Snow Angel in the Sand

906906 views44 comments44 favs

"It goes to infinity and back.That is how much I love you".She looked down into the sandplopped down and made a snow angel,Pushing the mudwith her arm and legs,like windshield wipersof a caron a rainy day"Auntie ... Auntie,How much I love you".

Shakespeare's Dark Lady -- John Hudson (review disguised as fiction)

13231323 views99 comments44 favs

William Shakespeare (a surname that meant "wanker" back in the day, by the way)

A Journal of the Plague Year: Day 237: A pandemic miscellany

820820 views55 comments44 favs

Wheel turning, round and round again

The Memory

11881188 views1414 comments88 favs

The old lady is losing her memory. She forgets people's names yet so familiar to her. A little sheepish, she takes her basket and walks to the village. Just like when her legs were young, suntanned, shapely and attractive. Along the footpath, by the shop windows, over the…

A Special Assignment

14131413 views22 comments11 fav

In the graph of life or death, two axes will inevitably meet. Will it be as jarring as two sharp and well-hewn axes colliding?