Recommended stories

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

23312331 views99 comments55 favs

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

Seven Forever

16071607 views77 comments77 favs

It was my fault.

The Tree That Took Brooke’s Faith Away

18201820 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

14891489 views1111 comments55 favs

Among the raindrops/ occasional plopping snowflakes.

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

22702270 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

19551955 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

19321932 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

12411241 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

15221522 views77 comments66 favs

I almost caught a poet today.

Not by Choice but Circumstance

17171717 views88 comments66 favs

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

Improvisational

17811781 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

20882088 views1212 comments55 favs

Who are not here.

A Circus Never to Return

18691869 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

16541654 views1010 comments55 favs

He was instantly on her, pulling at her nightgown

Spring Ice

19421942 views88 comments66 favs

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

Ways and Means

14761476 views1212 comments55 favs

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

Hymen

19241924 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

25212521 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

14801480 views88 comments77 favs

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

The Art of the Ruin

17431743 views1212 comments66 favs

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

Zum is one instance of "um" herein

13471347 views1010 comments66 favs

Millennium jumped strumming lithium gum cumulative outnumber humiliated résumé jumpy instruments

Love Cycle – a serial

15671567 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

16661666 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

28042804 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

14121412 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

13721372 views1212 comments66 favs

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

We're All Guys Here

22772277 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…

Our Last Night at the Nunnery Motel 2.0 in Milano

14761476 views99 comments66 favs

They make you work For your pizza in Italy You have to slice it yourself While wearing a gas mask To ward off the cigarette smoke From every neighboring table While chasing away the Mosquitos and the pigeons The flies and the gypsy r

Assiduity Ten

15451545 views1010 comments66 favs

I'm using a 16mm motion picture camera with sound on film, equipped with a magazine holding six hundred feet, giving me approximately fifteen minutes of continuous shooting. Uzma has changed her cloths again. She's dressed for working in the garden, wearing a white…