Recommended stories

The Way Back Home

20722072 views99 comments77 favs

500 miles all the way from Omaha nine hours on the back of a flatbed truck

A Cameo (for no-one)

18431843 views77 comments55 favs

I bleed my heart into my computer, peruse The fact they have proclaimed my root unfit for use But it is I! This manhood, this tower Extending up toward the heavens like a miraculous flower, Purple headed warrior of generation, See it standing…

Leftover Author's Notes

678678 views1616 comments77 favs

#281: If you make it to the end on this one, I'll send you $1,000 in cash and a bag of apples. Your choices are Granny Smith and Fuji. I can also pay you in euros if that helps.

Strikhedonia!

433433 views66 comments44 favs

Amen, no more nothingness now, finally the hilarity of a band of abecedarians getting drunk on whiskey and beer. We've been in this place since 11 am, now its December in January On the toilet cubicle wall are words such as Sorry and …

Bride and Groom

20442044 views1616 comments77 favs

He wears an old black tux, shiny at the elbows, and his gray hair has been styled and sprayed into a fragile tornado. On his lap sits a Chihuahua wearing a bridal outfit—veil and all.

Laidlaw

14581458 views1010 comments77 favs

There were too many laws but not enough of the kinds she wanted. She wished for the right to go shopping. Then taste rather than disposable income or access to finance could distinguish people.

Love and Destruction In A '67 El Dorado

20752075 views1313 comments1111 favs

He had her pinned to the back seat, expressing his love. Do you love me? she whispered in his ear. Do you, do you, Jimmy Dale, do you love me? His only response…

Aquis Submersus

15371537 views1010 comments88 favs

In a dream, he’s covered in masticated bits of paint and canvas and metal shavings and it keeps raining down until he’s buried and he wakes up with a yell.

i've already broken your heart

391391 views88 comments88 favs

.

Where's Waldo?

14511451 views99 comments88 favs

Over his usual ham sandwich and skim milk for lunch Uncle Waldo used to always say, “Going out in the dead of night without a flashlight is dangerous.” But I knew what I was doing. After dark, I'd slip out and sneaker on down the path to take a dip in a…

The Match Maker and His Student

139139 views88 comments88 favs

Then there was the slide, some time during late winter

End Game

12431243 views1414 comments77 favs

The will to make/ remains

Kitty Love

22382238 views1111 comments88 favs

Our next door neighbor is in love with his cat. His wife sits in our kitchen crying her eyes out.

In an authentic Irish pub in Las Vegas

15201520 views55 comments55 favs

In an authentic Irish pub in Las Vegas where over much crowd noise the three of us are discussing Yeats, Joyce and Lady Gregory. We’re in an Irish pub after all, plus the fact we’re literature profs attending a Vegas academic conference.

Bubbles

24902490 views1212 comments66 favs

It’s about 4:30 when the phone rings. I look at the display and see it’s home. “Hey,” I say picking up. “I hate you,” says Jules. “I hate, you, too,” I say. My co-workers don’t even blink. They’ve heard this before.

The Argument

18601860 views1010 comments88 favs

"What mouths could not say, hands did."

Instructions Found in an Empty Can of Coffee

13351335 views1212 comments77 favs

If you find a lone, sad honeybee, buy a Habitrail cage and make it your new pet.

Donnie's end

16241624 views1212 comments88 favs

I pointed, trying to keep a rising frisson of alarm from my voice.

The Rare Air on Planet Teeny

18161816 views1010 comments88 favs

Half-pint Ball canning jars, each labeled in earnest capital letters, took up a whole wall of Teeny’s bedroom. Inside each jar was air she had collected from some place important to her life.

The Brevity of Anthropology

14061406 views1111 comments88 favs

In time's embroidery, the human storyis a short stretch of a short strand within the thread of half a knot-and that stretch of strand's defective. What will mourn us when we're gone?Not the plants which live so lightly on the earth.Not the scorpions and not the ants.Perhaps…

Right of Spring

18131813 views88 comments88 favs

dicks, skulls and upside down crosses

Same Grape, Different Name

21552155 views1313 comments88 favs

on this scenic route you will likely encounter a handful of bicycle spoke lobster traps.

The Pixie

20192019 views1111 comments77 favs

On the bank of the stream, we take off our clothes and dash into the water.

Wilmington

34313431 views1212 comments33 favs

The neighbor kids start, we join in–

magnets

15421542 views1111 comments77 favs

... his skin glistened like a sharp blade

Four Fundamentalist Teenagers In Front Of A Metropolitan Railway Car

18151815 views77 comments66 favs

That morning, four children appeared in front of the train, which was ready to depart

Off the Grid

15551555 views1212 comments88 favs

The slicing is easy. Blade barely touching skin, flesh separating into two clean parts. A breath, and blood fills in the space, an old friend materializing in the shadows. I am redolent with hope and desire. I can't stop thinking of how he excised himself from my…

Let me tell you one last story

26432643 views99 comments77 favs

Let’s be honest, you were cheating on your girlfriend, and I would’ve slept with anyone

Perils of Poetry in a Pandemic

10931093 views2020 comments66 favs

...the bulk of poets are amateurs.

Dos Equis

18961896 views1616 comments88 favs

dos equis ambar sits cool and dark by my side