Recommended stories

Imitation of Life

21032103 views77 comments77 favs

The watermelon slices were painted wood, because they held their shape better in the heat. The photo was done night-for-day with bright spotlights to make for sharper outlines than natural light could provide. In actuality, it is all shadows.

Measures

16821682 views1010 comments66 favs

Blending in at a rock concert in ballet flats was harder than I thought it would be. The heavy eye makeup and lit cigarette I never brought to my lips put me somewhere between “Trying Too Hard” and “Bless Her Heart.”

Wake

829829 views66 comments44 favs

At my daughter's wake Mr. Aleford, her teacher, poked out his pointy nose, sniffing my cologne. How could I be plastered with this, at a time like this? Well, dear Sir, Two reasons. One, to hide the booze. And two, because my wife and I had made feverish love that…

Kafka, Smashed

12981298 views99 comments77 favs

perhaps I am only being transported not for replacement but for repair

Virgo

13321332 views1313 comments66 favs

I said he was cold. I said I like cold.

Hearing the Usual Reports

12141214 views88 comments77 favs

In its own defense against what is too concrete the mind allows a magical thought--

Skunks

12531253 views1313 comments66 favs

I tell people that we leave out food for the creatures to appease the skunk gods.

Purple Lady, Lavender Afternoon

19181918 views1010 comments66 favs

—Pretty tulips, said the woman.

Curves

16571657 views1414 comments66 favs

and the smiles light the way when the wind blows the darkness

A Fib

17571757 views88 comments77 favs

We want our lives even-cut, …

The Farmer's Sons

107107 views1111 comments77 favs

..

Borderline

766766 views77 comments55 favs

You slipped me the key

Freedom

14211421 views77 comments77 favs

She tossed the big bird into the air. It wobbled, then flew away.

The Boys

24732473 views1717 comments66 favs

The Boys The Boys, they call my brothers in the neighborhood, or Those Boys. The Taylor Boys. Sometimes, Mom calls them Thing One and Thing Two, like in The Cat in the Hat. Those bad boys. Nobody has brothers like my brothers, kicked off the school bus, barred…

Alteration

30883088 views44 comments66 favs

I was seeking nothing more than this: to have my suit altered.

A Journal of the Plague Year: Day 289: Valedictory for a Clown

10931093 views1414 comments66 favs

the end of this journal

Stories Around People

18801880 views1212 comments44 favs

Stories Around People An Event Facebook lived in midtown, for there the people and windows shone like water. Though it would board the bus—1 day—and ride to the sea, where people said words like sea and where the city shone in the waves…

Some People

17301730 views1212 comments77 favs

But those burning red numbers persist in my mind and I can't rest 'till they're gone They always come back Like the cat in that childhood song.

American Triptych

19301930 views1010 comments66 favs

It’s always fun and easy/ to punish the poor

How To Train Mules

19381938 views88 comments66 favs

“Mules don’t like to dive, Esther.” “I said maybe, Hugh. Maybe.”

Deep June Pool

18431843 views66 comments66 favs

I may be the shadow that I am, but I only ever loved you.

The Sadness of Thrift Shops

16301630 views1010 comments66 favs

They couldn’t have done it better if they’d waved guns around in the air.

Signs

10861086 views77 comments77 favs

The monkey did not live for long. He’d lost interest in the stuffed dog pretty much right away. The farther away the shuttle, the more garbled and fanciful the sign language the monkey had been taught became.

Summertime

19571957 views1111 comments77 favs

I am so happy to see winter almost gone

Granny Medicine

12231223 views99 comments77 favs

Antibiotic ointment didn't help. Maybe Granny medicine would.

Nothing Ever Stays Looking

12831283 views99 comments77 favs

The same, some things you Can't explain, most trees Have felt it go bone dry at the roots before. I've learned to let love Go bye bye. You think they don't Want to answer your pathetic knocks, But they're…

The Writing Class

13221322 views88 comments77 favs

I ask if anyone has a poem or a story they would like to read. Everybody's hand shoots up.

Burn

10491049 views99 comments77 favs

No one believed me when I told them this: I took all of my novels and tossed them into the fire.

Rose Gold

17631763 views77 comments66 favs

He hasn't had a wedding ring in years. When George's knuckles began to swell — a little arthritis — his ring dug into his finger so bad his wife Loren took him to the ER and had it cut off. The ring, not the finger. He never knew there was a tool to cut rings,…

Walking On Air

14611461 views1010 comments77 favs

Nik Wallenda was going to walk a wire stretched from Sarasota Bay across US 41 to a condo on Gulf Stream Drive.