Most recent stories

Summer Girl

20112011 views2222 comments1919 favs

You’re bro­ken. Your eyes don’t see quite right, and your hands don’t feel quick enough. I love you any­way.

Overboard

13651365 views33 comments22 favs

Six months ago, Gary hired a goateed designer to "defoliate" the office, trucking out all the ficus trees and spanish moss to make room for curved sheets of fiberglass and, as he called it, "negative space." Now, her voice echoes off the concrete floors.

But Not For Me

16231623 views1010 comments66 favs

So when they shake a finger, when they yell, she remembers Miss Whalen saying, “It’s not for keeps.”

Shuffling Deck Chairs on the Titanic

15961596 views00 comments00 favs

He said he'd searched in vain for his wife, Mary, before abandoning hope and the ship in one of the last row boats. He was allowed in because of his experience fishing.

En Pointe

11551155 views22 comments00 favs

Her gaunt arms softly rose, sweeping in front of her with movements that were hesitant at first but, as the music that only she could hear took her in its grip, became graceful and assured.

How It Started

687687 views11 comment00 favs

At two AM I went to bed, and the mill shut down shortly after. The silence jerked me out of sleep so fast I almost screamed. Choking and sweating, I lay there and tried to figure out why I was so scared. And then I realized: for the first time in half a y

from MLKNG SCKLS

14091409 views22 comments22 favs

94% Battery Power Remaining Last night I dreamt about a mutt whose tail never learned how to wag, and under a sun that gagged us with heat, the mutt sat stoned with its mouth belching cones of pot smoke. Sometimes the smoke shone orange – sometim

IV

10181018 views55 comments11 fav

For those of you who come quickly as darts in black atmosphere, a bittersweet half. I'd like to be forgiven, for these thoughts which racket my insides, a tennis ball of occupancy. This yielding of song: a sip: sorting my business through the shield. No way of bartering the…

Pearls

953953 views33 comments00 favs

You're trying to attract visitation in a small quarter with pearls in both your lobes. Only half of what you say is true. The red lipstick shines through like a brad on white paper, a voice, soprano. The half I tend to appreciate squanders & squalls. This is the ride…

Monkey House

12141214 views66 comments11 fav

We walked into the light where tired elephants slung their trunks and big cats moved over hills. My head was swollen, the whole back of my skull throbbing and black.

Catastrophic, and Not Above Bad Puns

14011401 views00 comments00 favs

I laid in the road, broken and alone, until I had no choice but to pull myself together and get out.

Comes a Little Dog

14571457 views1010 comments22 favs

Time Holds Ultimately Nothing Dear Except Reunion

The Mouse and the Cat: A Beast Fable

16841684 views00 comments00 favs

Pussy’s eyes narrowed, her dark, luxurious fur quivering on her back. “How can you say such a thing! It’s not true.”

The Billygoat: A Beast Fable

14131413 views11 comment11 fav

“I will become a respected novelist!” proclaimed Billy.

Bitter Love Story

14761476 views88 comments22 favs

the dogneck gave no support

Adrift

13291329 views33 comments11 fav

Picking up a perfect stranger—perfect meaning dead, in this case—and shaping him into the man you’d want him to be is not so easy.

Automaton

992992 views22 comments11 fav

I must say your script is rather impressive. “You will mesmerize a girl in velvet stained garment…” “The channels of cologne fade from a body, eventually.” The girl carousels home with a raspier…

Beer, for my Gravediggers

10281028 views33 comments00 favs

It's cheap beer, but cold you welcome that rushing hiss and the following long drink of chilly wetness washing away the parched, dust dry, cotton mouth of grave-digging in the desert sun

Yadda, Yadda, Yaddo

17031703 views33 comments11 fav

I arrived at Yaddo, the prestigious artists’ retreat, in the summer of 1941. With America’s “day that will live in infamy” several months away, my own day of infamy began the second morning of my residency.

Bandits in the Afternoon Rain

15311531 views1010 comments00 favs

Somewhere there are fires burning in oil barrels, ragged homeless men warming torn-mittened hands―one day I'll be with them.

Toy

693693 views11 comment00 favs

In the store, multi-color kites dance along the ceiling. And in the costume aisle, a young mother shows her daughter how to tie her shoe. “Bunny ears, around the corner…” Glass animals shine in rows on high shelves. A boy examines lengths…

Aromatherapy

989989 views00 comments00 favs

Marie Poupon-Kennedy wasn’t strangled by one set of hands; there were thirty sets around that long, pale neck.

Mountain Country

15411541 views66 comments22 favs

I’ve always missed the mountains, but I didn’t know it until I saw them.

Traveling Lightheaded

11761176 views44 comments11 fav

He lit my cigarette even though he didn't want me to smoke. Buying me drinks all night, he didn't complain, but he thought I drank too much.

Wishes Shovel Best

10831083 views00 comments00 favs

Just as he expected, the reaction was spontaneous, euphoric and unequivocally positive. With just one exception. A politician connected with the home service of his parliamentary section's boss, with the mobile phone number 0-609-3459812, and known for hi

Shoebox

23642364 views4040 comments2020 favs

They lie down in the prairie grass and clutch each other, imagine dying under fat clouds.

Pillow

19971997 views1515 comments1111 favs

The sky was an over-bleached sheet, stretched to the point of ripping. Everything worn but clean. He was saying he'd be happier if we lived in Canada. The sun seemed very close, like a star at the top of a Christmas tree. Maybe I could pull it down. Our baby had…

Payout

15801580 views99 comments66 favs

In the evidence of broad daylight, in the secrecy of darkness, in drizzling rain that teased the embers, Annabelle worked hard.

Lost and Found

20212021 views3737 comments1818 favs

list: almond message oil almond sunset tea dark chocolate 80% dry rhubarb soda lavender bath oil musk candles red light bulb

Cubicle Genie*

15231523 views22 comments11 fav

At the TV station across the street two sports team mascots are dancing and miming for the cameras. There are some young men wearing baseball caps at the viewing window simulating sex acts for the cameras.