Recommended stories

Improvisation on a Theme of Absolute Absence

12691269 views77 comments66 favs

Perhaps nothing has never existed;/ perhaps something always has

Horny

17271727 views99 comments55 favs

Cornelia stared in the mirror wishing them away. She'd locked herself in the bathroom for several hours now, but no one had even noticed. Her surprise at cutting her hand while washing her hair was nothing compared to horror she felt when she realized exactly what she'd cut…

Left to Leaves

770770 views22 comments33 favs

Golden yellows and oranges and reds that could have been scratching their toes now just tear the skin around her Achilles' heel.

I Confess to God in the Shower

16851685 views99 comments55 favs

During fifth grade, I was called / closeted queer and tall faggot.

Seven Forever

12011201 views77 comments77 favs

It was my fault.

The Tree That Took Brooke’s Faith Away

14361436 views55 comments33 favs

The thing was, though, she couldn’t shake the image of that dead dog she had found inside the black trash bag she thought could be first base, right before the twins said, Screw the game, let’s swing.

Meteorology

11021102 views1111 comments55 favs

Among the raindrops/ occasional plopping snowflakes.

Tweeting "War and Peace" by Bobbie Ann Mason and Meg Pokrass

17881788 views1212 comments55 favs

by Bobbie Ann Mason and Meg Pokrass at The Nervous Breakdown website: http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/mpokrass/2012/10/tweeting-war-and-peace-with-bobbie-ann-mason/

Hummingbird hearts in a breadbox

15211521 views99 comments66 favs

We married in the ruins of a pachinko hall, the tiny bones in the pocket of your tracksuit luring a pack of wild dogs out from the underpass.

Cherry Stem

15961596 views55 comments55 favs

He moved his rotten breath closer to my mouth, like he wanted to twirl his tongue around just to see how it felt.

Village Life Brochure

922922 views77 comments77 favs

I live in a small fishing village where small people fish and others gossip or invent bizarre methods by which to irritate each other. During our weekly power cuts I go outside and cross the street, sitting on the pharmacy steps to watch myself not be at home in the…

Lord of the Poets

11021102 views77 comments66 favs

I almost caught a poet today.

Not by Choice but Circumstance

11911191 views88 comments66 favs

With small and fleshy hands/ I scratch at enigmatic stones,

Improvisational

778778 views66 comments66 favs

This is not her death. This is absent-minded omniscience. This is impossible. And then again, the inside-out, implosion. And the hall was clogged with bodies; none of them hers, but who could be sure?

Walking

12071207 views1212 comments55 favs

Who are not here.

A Circus Never to Return

15501550 views77 comments77 favs

But on arrival Darlene was in no prompt mood to undress. "There's some ugly sumpthin' out there along the fence, looks like it's gnawin' on sumpthin' dead."

Birth of a Tiger

13181318 views1010 comments55 favs

He was instantly on her, pulling at her nightgown

Spring Ice

14761476 views88 comments66 favs

...I stared at my good dog with the same entreaty I saw in her eyes. Save us. Please.

Ways and Means

10581058 views1212 comments55 favs

the bodies of the poor become/ a simple logistical problem,/ disposable as any gnawed bones

Hymen

15431543 views88 comments66 favs

For me German was a school subject. For Hymen, who could pronounce German but not speak it, it was a poetic technique or element, shorthand for what ails the world.

Big Secrets

18691869 views55 comments44 favs

O’Malley imagined the blissful, narcotic innocence of Toby’s world where soft-shell crabs crawled into people’s mouths and hummed a happy tune as they were chewed and swallowed.

Memoir 2.4

11301130 views88 comments77 favs

He invited her in for a Martini and she graciously accepted.

The Art of the Ruin

10481048 views1212 comments66 favs

The ghosts run before/ attacking horsemen. A heart/ is ruptured by a spear.

Zum is one instance of "um" herein

10321032 views1010 comments66 favs

Millennium jumped strumming lithium gum cumulative outnumber humiliated résumé jumpy instruments

Love Cycle – a serial

11401140 views88 comments66 favs

1. How can one begrudge the cracking open of a heart?When the lava love fire loaded insanity of self-control disappearsAnd the raw spewing beginsYou better be ready for the truthIt ain't gonna be prettyYou'll wish you were deadYou won't recognize where you areYou'll be…

Jack-in-the-Box U-Haul

12191219 views66 comments66 favs

“When I was six years old, Dad came home from Vietnam and picked me and Mama up from her sister's house in Boston. We packed a U-Haul with everything we owned from T.V. to toothbrush. Dad hitched the trailer to the Rambler and drove us South, back home to Carolina. A…

Nevertheless The Plan Was Not Implemented

20752075 views77 comments55 favs

Thomas Friedman was right when he said, “Much of this biodiversity in Indonesia is now under threat.” It had been this way since gasoline became currency; I remember bartering with The Governance for the newest edition of The Guinness Book of

said the fury to the shade

10471047 views33 comments44 favs

let competitions in crime ensue let every madness bring let every sword be drawn let every furious rage flow free let anger know no shame let all blind rage inflame . . .

Post-apocalyptic Fable # 8

979979 views1212 comments66 favs

Crouching like little children in a game of hide & seek, we entered the old house, slowly

We're All Guys Here

17741774 views66 comments77 favs

The doorbell rang while Ron was masturbating.He closed his eyes tight. Tried to hold the image of Lori bent over the arm of the couch. No use. It was gone. Ron sighed, then levered the recliner down. Tied on the terry-cloth robe Lori had given him. He kicked aside an empty…