Most recent stories

San Francisco

891891 views33 comments11 fav

A dead whale drifts.

Freckles

21972197 views4141 comments2121 favs

My eyes became purple, and boys called them "picture windows". Well, not boys, exactly, but one girl did. Junie.

A Thousand Words

13941394 views00 comments00 favs

Photographs can create, both good and bad. They can create a way to make a living, but they can also create opportunities for black mail, divorce settlements and most of all they can create power.

American Birthdays

20802080 views1111 comments99 favs

Cherry was America's least favorite pie. Her mother made it every year for her father's birthday because "daddy doesn't like cake." America had to wash the bowls, the wooden spoon, the plates and finally the Pyrex dish. Her brother got to "contribute" by climbing the tree…

Your dog, or hazelnut gelato - which would it be?

983983 views66 comments00 favs

It’s hard to lose. Harder than you think. I guess the ultimate question is: If I had to give up one thing, my dog, or hazelnut gelato, which would it be? I’ll tell you, between those two, it would have been easy to choose. But losing you, that was a who

The Football Hero

695695 views00 comments00 favs

He was the first football hero the town had ever known; so fast, he ran rings around teams from other towns.

Order

10091009 views22 comments00 favs

Still worried. I could use some more hope in my oatmeal.

Night Swim

16811681 views99 comments33 favs

She wrapped her legs around him. His hand barely held the rope and later he could not have said if it happened above or below the water’s surface.

Regarding Hank

12221222 views00 comments00 favs

Won't speak a word against 'em. Car trunk stunk like bad chicken long after, but I won't speak a word against 'em.

Gershwin’s Second Prelude

36143614 views2525 comments2929 favs

While Kate practiced the piano in the tiny third-floor apartment, Wiley cooked dinner, jogging in place in front of the stove.

Threads

16231623 views77 comments44 favs

She said he was missing the whole point: it was a decoration, not an actual pillow. You were supposed to place it somewhere artful.

Licking around the rim

19161916 views33 comments11 fav

Sure, it was a hot day, but the driver was in the middle of a driving lesson!

Your Love Life

14501450 views55 comments22 favs

Maintaining a healthy love life requires effort and professional advice, and Your Love Life columnist would be happy to assist you.

The alcohol is on my mind, on my mind, on my mind

10981098 views22 comments00 favs

The alcohol is on my mind, on my mind, on my mind

I Was a Cat Once

13021302 views33 comments00 favs

This is a 50-word story.

Rite-Aid

10711071 views22 comments00 favs

It was the most prestigious cashier position in the entire state!

Appointment

17101710 views1919 comments88 favs

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

Split second

12411241 views11 comment11 fav

When people talk about the end moments when one's life flashes before his or her eyes, they often refer to time as slowing down. I can attest to this phenomenon during my final moments, before the collision: the song playing on the radio, the squeal of tires and flash of…

WHORES

15481548 views44 comments44 favs

... if they called her Mother, would she take them home and raise them?

The Pocahontas Forgiveness Goes Viral

18871887 views1313 comments99 favs

You generated coal light from your gait as easily as the new sun crawls through a sleepy forest, without worry over hot spillage, or who might be horribly blinded or grossly revealed or given visions in that rare moment of wet earth and…

Arm

18471847 views22 comments11 fav

As I was going into Wal-Mart, a man with a useless arm was coming out. I'd never seen anything like that arm—a dangle-flesh, rubbery thing with no purpose.

The Man Who Suckled Elvis

10741074 views00 comments00 favs

No one wanted to bear witness to this grand emasculation

Mother of the Earth

849849 views22 comments00 favs

On Terry’s eighteenth birthday (the summer of 1966, the same year you graduated from high school, and the year I broke up with Sharon) I took Terry out to Fox River on my dad's ski boat, and opened up my robe and showed her all there was to show of myse

Tarot

17881788 views22 comments11 fav

He had no idea about the first three cards - what he would call the flop - which looked dubious and full of danger.

The Pope of Rock and Roll

658658 views11 comment11 fav

Pope Leo XIII endorsed a cocaine-based drink and at the age of 90 sat in on a session with a castrato that is still available on CD.

Squog

244244 views2323 comments1313 favs

I choose my words carefully, “Dogs love to chase squirrels, squirrels hate being chased by dogs. It’s a pattern that results in both dogs and squirrels being frustrated.”

Hors d'oeuvre

16881688 views3030 comments1212 favs

What scares her about libraries are unshelved books, the ones you thumb through while you are waiting for the elevator, because you realize that there are too many books in the world and you are holding that particular book only because it is lost.

Event Particle (10)

972972 views11 comment00 favs

my tiny white world, the cube in the closet in the back above the shelving in a secret compartment cut into the wall

The Creator of the Nipple

13041304 views66 comments22 favs

Speaking of stiff nipples, I heard you once wanted to become a painter, because of your fondness for nipples. Feeling like Gauguin and his little Polynesian women/girls, are we? So, you're going to try to out-paint God, are you, Mr. Sistine Chapel of the

Voronezh. Samara. Tyumen.

16471647 views88 comments55 favs

They have a saying in Russia: Live in Voronezh, work in Samara, die in Tyumen. In honour of Saint Rose, born on the banks of the Voronezh, fed the hungry and the poor of Samara, torn apart by wolves in Tyumen on the exact date that she had herself predict