Most recent stories

Guidance Counselors Fight Boring Image by Ghost-Riding Their Whips

577577 views22 comments11 fav

“I was talking to kid who hadn’t applied to college, and I asked him why,” Branson says. “He rolled his eyes and said ‘Why go to college if I’m gonna end up a tool like you?’"

The Three Of Swords - любовь среди волков

12241224 views22 comments11 fav

A look flashed across his face as if someone had hooked up his genitals to a car battery.

The Evacuation Queue

10671067 views33 comments11 fav

The ticking must have gone on for an hour before Kathy realized it wasn't a clock. When the line finally moved, the rhythm changed. When the queue stopped again, she glanced behind her and noticed a woman in torn jeans and a filthy sweater tapping a heel on the…

Were I Konstancja Gladkowska

11451145 views44 comments22 favs

My playing would falter languidly, and transcend itself like a wishful Nocturne

Stones

10411041 views55 comments22 favs

The manicured lawn rolls down either side of the knoll, punctuated with flat granite plaques, the occasional bouquet of cut flowers, a smattering of faded eight-inch American flags.

They Wanted Songs about Love but Got Idle Chatter.

971971 views77 comments33 favs

Granddad listened to Elvis and then he would talk more or less the entire night. “Mystery Train” was Sam Phillips' song. Then Presley recorded it, but did it up different, sounded much faster so you could feel your hair blow back a bit. …

It's Stupid, Stupid, What Will Become Of Us

730730 views00 comments00 favs

Whoa! Whoa! This just in! You mean we were minutes away from some kind of immanent Greek tragedy!!? Let me get this straight. I cheated one time on Jolene with Jolene’s baby-sitter (you!), whom she used to cheat on her husband (with me)? I guess I’m luc

Box Kite

619619 views22 comments11 fav

The box kite floats high over the marsh.

Minneapolis

876876 views22 comments00 favs

He will later claim he knows nothing of the girl’s disappearance and that I was the last one seen with her, which will unfortunately be true but not the real story…

Lineage

849849 views11 comment11 fav

the arc of her invective presumably aimed at the little boy and girl ambling halfway down the block behind her

Okatooga Warhammer

10271027 views33 comments22 favs

They looked like girl’s jeans. Matt held them against himself in the mirror. Not that girl’s jeans were a mark against them. Usually, girls had better jeans anyway. Matt took two of the biggest pairs out of the big chest in his grandmother’s back closet.

Searching for a poem

13291329 views55 comments55 favs

Each person in each car could be poetic/ Duende, but they look at each other and ask/“Did you fart?”

I Am the Cheap Man

970970 views00 comments00 favs

I considered my choices, then asked the question that has brought my wife so much pain over the years. "Which is cheaper?"

SNOWSTORM

12091209 views1010 comments66 favs

long lines, short words

I Wake Up Teetering

11641164 views66 comments55 favs

I wake up on the edge of the mattress, teetering. The dog is looking at me funny.

Something Jazzy

14011401 views1414 comments1313 favs

. . . clinging to life in a shroud of winter air. It veered up five flights to a sweltering summer night on the roof . . .

Clatter

11241124 views44 comments55 favs

The stick had a head and a face and a swirling robe, all etched in wood. It was the 14th Dalai Lama.

Bus

11581158 views55 comments44 favs

You can’t take a chandelier on an emergency dash across a nuclear desert.

In the Time of the Chou Dynasty

9595 views00 comments00 favs

Young Prince, drowsy, escapes his Royal Tutor for the kitchen. Sitting on a wood block, he follows the swing of Royal Cook cutting a bullock. Crrk with each swinging chop. Wssh with each rent of flesh."Well done," cries Young Prince."Sire, it is The Way.…

Fall From Grace

780780 views00 comments00 favs

My usual angel fell from the ceiling and onto the couch.

One More Silver Dollar

11071107 views44 comments22 favs

Culloden County, MS - 1989 All Janine knew was the idiot had a gun. As to why he would ever need one was beyond her. He couldn't look dumber holding it, either. He was too small for it, or at least he looked that way to…

Knocking off the edges

924924 views22 comments11 fav

The chipping sound started around the time Susannah reached puberty. Not all at once, it was just now and then at first.“What's that noise?” she'd say, and everyone would cock their heads to listen. Her mother eventually took her to the doctor. He said it…

Maybe I'm Not Totally Non-Violent

711711 views22 comments00 favs

I knew this woman would come up eventually. She used to wait on us at Villa Nova, while a bunch of us sat drinking

Turkey Hunt

12681268 views44 comments22 favs

While I was still new at Black & Twigg, shortly before Thanksgiving, Percy brought me a handwritten memo to type, the subject “Turkey Hunt,” addressed to all Black & Twigg employees in the San Francisco office from management. It said that the firm…

Dog Meat

186186 views1313 comments44 favs

The squad comes upon two of the long-snouted dogs gnawing at the bloated carcass of a third.

Dream Girl

11231123 views88 comments66 favs

There was something wrong with this picture. Was he the man she had slept with last night?

The New Girl

972972 views44 comments11 fav

She’s new, with the enthusiasm of a new person. And everyone wants the new girl.

Friend of the Week

794794 views1818 comments1515 favs

“Is your husband abusive?” the therapist asks. Therapy is Kerry’s secret.

Olive Green

10111011 views11 comment11 fav

Five years ago—or maybe ten—I clipped an article containing a quote that has haunted and inspired me ever since, and tacked it to my wall. Describing the success of diplomats from nearly ninety nations to convene in Oslo, Norway, and agree on the wording

Meeting Adjourned

11921192 views22 comments11 fav

Once a month I fuck the boss. It’s not part of my job description. We have a meeting in her office, after thirty minutes she opens the door to what appears to be a storeroom but is actually a well-appointed fuck chamber ...