Most recent stories

634 Orchards, fruits & forestry

16331633 views1212 comments88 favs

The juice that stays on my neck when you tip me back, catching me in an alleyway, holding me upright as the oranges tumble and strike the backs of my knees. You cup your strong-smelling, sticky-soft fingers around my ear and say let's blow this city.

A Body Divided, 5

14251425 views00 comments00 favs

Physical therapy was on the agenda every morning, first thing. A nurse would come to my room from the basement floor where they did physical therapy. She'd wrap me in a blanket and put me into a wheelchair, even though it was obvious I didn't need one to

Memory

974974 views77 comments00 favs

Jessica's face was so close to mine I had to focus on her left eyeball to keep my eyes from crossing.

A Necessary Evil

16371637 views2323 comments55 favs

But it was a necessary evil and one he’d made peace with, easy to do when he arrived home each day to the comforting touch of his wife, his home.

Why They Cried: Roy

15591559 views22 comments11 fav

“Where did it go? You don’t know do you?” he teased the dogs as he adjusted the bottle rocket he had twisted into the ground at his feet, trying to find the optimal path.

The Common Cold

12151215 views3333 comments1313 favs

There was dad sitting at the table, wide awake, reading glasses on nose, pen in hand above a Doppler graph of numbers on paper, one of many now-lost theorems, looking up as his son walked into the room.

A Raisin in The Sun

10641064 views22 comments00 favs

I was about sixteen or seventeen when James Miller had a stroke and died. He was a friend of my father's and a preacher-guy. The last time our church had been that full was at the barbecue the weekend after the church was built. Somehow, the structure went…

First Crush

964964 views22 comments00 favs

I wanted those jelly rolls so bad I could scream

Walking To Gibraltar, Chapter 6: In Which Moral Boundaries Are Set

10451045 views00 comments00 favs

The first time they were separated, he rediscovered music and writing.

Animal Park (Part II)

15321532 views00 comments00 favs

“Why have you not voted Mindeo”, Tidi squeaked. “Because there is a third way. If we stay only here, we will eventually be driven out. To attack the erect worms to extend our…

Wrinkles, Men and Shades of Gray

12611261 views55 comments22 favs

You stand in the mirror. You see yourself. You stand sideways; your profile is always your best. You tuck in your stomach, you stick out your ass but it's the same. You stand face front. You shiver. The mirror adds weight to your already sagging breasts, the wrinkles…

12 Dreams

12961296 views88 comments00 favs

That dog again; enduring love.

maggots are small minutes in the trash i saw them

16751675 views2626 comments1010 favs

maggots are small minutes in the trash i saw them

A Body Divided, 4

14531453 views33 comments00 favs

After surviving the first night in the hospital, I was put into a shared room to save on expenses, and to make room for the deluge of new cases that were coming in, and that was when I made friends with my roommate, Tommy. He was a boy about the sam

White Woman

13941394 views1818 comments55 favs

She had a compulsion to organize things according to their size or colour or according to some other abstruse algorithm that clicked through her mind. She didn't know that this was OCD

Why They Cried: Jisette

15451545 views44 comments00 favs

There was that long weekend she'd spent lazing around a suite at the Beverly Wilshire between the Golden Globes and the Oscars with the suddenly now married actor, and then there had been Cabo. This was before the current thing and before the thing before

Walking To Gibraltar, Chapter 5: In Which Lymph Nodes Are Involved

10551055 views11 comment00 favs

Astrid did not smoke. Astrid did not drink. Astrid was not overweight. Astrid did not live a sedentary lifestyle; her whole life, aside from shopping, was working out. Astrid had no history of breast cancer or other female cancers in her family. Astrid di

Animal Park (Part I)

13671367 views00 comments00 favs

“The robin is the one. …

a random thought

890890 views00 comments00 favs

They shake, shake, while mouths say the words.

Josef, Boy from Brazil

10531053 views55 comments00 favs

I noticed his pistol before his pissbag and I knew then that failure not only had a face but a balding head, too

The Zilch Belches Out Its Own National Anthem To the Trendy Crowds

16821682 views2525 comments55 favs

" Not a day goes by/ that isn't stabbed with common sorrow"--Maurice Manning Crazy's alright by me if it's a harmless plea for some little sanity, or unavoidable by birth but it just won't do for tricks. Like say I go over there right…

The Death of Your Brother

37503750 views00 comments00 favs

Suddenly a downpour erupted again, just like it did earlier in the morning. Clouds came out of nowhere, and it became a deluge. It felt like things including our tiny trailer were going to start floating around the nudist camp. Gina held back the little c

Why They Cried: Deano

14841484 views33 comments11 fav

When it came time to sell the agency—when the papers came for him to sign—it was a very bad deal. But he did not cry. This was business. He had gambled and he had lost. He signed the papers without a hint of regret and even pried open a case of champa

Subj: re: doing time ...

15361536 views1919 comments1010 favs

The jail, where I stayed for 48 hours, gave me enough information to write a 180-page book, something I resisted setting out upon due to the insult of it.

Tango

13401340 views00 comments00 favs

By the end of the evening, a dark circle of sweat stained the overstretched satin over her dome of a belly. José told her to take it easy. “When people come to a tango bar, they want to think about sex, not babies.”

That Magical Hour

10691069 views33 comments11 fav

Every night she waited for that magical hour when her breath was quick and her heart was loud rushing in her ears 8:04 or sometime 8:20 either way she knew the voice she would hear of her beloved was coming any minute now and so she was…

architecture

972972 views55 comments33 favs

you look like the insides of my cheeks chewed.

Homeless

11641164 views44 comments00 favs

blueberry tea and vodka on a Friday night

Early One Morning at Denny's

11061106 views00 comments00 favs

Throughout breakfast Quebec kept watching this investor fellow, John Lytle. She tried remembering something about him, about when they'd first met. Her first impressions were very nearly always correct. But all she could bring to memory now was that it

The Piss-Colored Man

15041504 views77 comments55 favs

His open door was interpreted by the neighbor as an invitation to all but place a mirror under his nose. She demanded opportunities to fluff his pillows and coerced him into accepting gifts of food, more than he could possibly eat, and sometimes ate with