Recommended stories

And then the Heat Broke

21402140 views77 comments22 favs

She did not know Robert’s skin was sliced and bruised from the twelve pound ball and chain locked to his ankle for sixteen hours that night.

Flood

17111711 views77 comments44 favs

My mother's afraid the dog will drown. It's raining and our street is flooding and the dog is standing on top of his doghouse. My mother is pregnant. I can stand beneath her stomach and not even see her face. I watch her from the kitchen window. She's shoeless. She holds…

Fatherhood 101

15181518 views99 comments44 favs

The instructor moved over to the whiteboard and wrote in big block letters “FOOTBALL” and then crossed it out. “You should just never treat your newborn like a football. That means no passing it or punting it.

Will #17

19771977 views88 comments44 favs

I want crazy at my funeral. I want clowns, a petting zoo, fireworks, craps tables, male and female strippers, and a three-person band composed of old men wearing striped vests, black pants, and straw hats: one plays a banjo, another on tuba, and…

The Bird King's employees

14251425 views55 comments44 favs

The Bird King's advisors and ministers are a range of rusty kitchen utensils. They all observe a respectful silence in his presence.——Contrary to popular belief, the Bird King is not an atheist. His meathook priests do their rounds at twilight.——The…

Monaco Memories

10721072 views88 comments44 favs

Back then he raced, grinding gears and skimming the edges of death.

Early Decision

17791779 views1010 comments33 favs

Melinda said forget the kegger last night, what we’re about to do will help you figure out whether you want to apply here.

Saturday Morning

15771577 views1010 comments22 favs

Saturday morning, and I’m pushing the old truck a little, chasing retreating bands of cloud shadows along a winding hilltop road.

Not Everything's Supposed to Make You Think

12531253 views66 comments55 favs

you are on a missing boat in the middle Of a fogged out notion of some sort. A no nonsense paddle could be made out Of something as intangible as an Incoming wave. This could also be a Floating thought up map, man. In…

Too Weak for the World

15921592 views55 comments55 favs

There was a certain romanticism in it, the salty old man sidling up to me at a bar, rhapsodizing in a slurred stream of conscious about the state of the world, the country, the state of his own heart. He didn't have an eye patch nor beard, nor was he…

Paying for Dinner at a French Restaurant So You Will Love Me

17021702 views55 comments55 favs

What does she have / that I don’t have / that I can’t buy / for myself?

Quitting

16061606 views1313 comments33 favs

—It’s difficult to say, he said. I have mood swings. Women don’t like that. They become upset.

Work of a Reader

11601160 views66 comments55 favs

Then it gets worse—this reading of books—I go to the café and can only read a minimalist there, one crouton at a time.

The Glassblower

13561356 views66 comments44 favs

His beloved are paper-thin when he blows into the free end. Green tint from copper.

A Bad Year

14611461 views55 comments55 favs

It's been a bad year, People dying. Some too close to home, Some too far away. I cry down to you, In your casket, and think you might sit up. You were not sick You went in just a moment, Looking stunning and alive. Not…

What You Choose to Take

15281528 views66 comments55 favs

You first hear about the wildfire on the old kitchen radio.

Homonyms Explicated

12701270 views55 comments55 favs

right/rite: Your touch smooth as impulse/ Swaying my mind

Threads

19121912 views77 comments44 favs

She said he was missing the whole point: it was a decoration, not an actual pillow. You were supposed to place it somewhere artful.

Genesis Serpent’s Skin Found

16971697 views55 comments55 favs

This may be too religious for you, as at first it was so with me. But I assure you, on my scholarly integrity, I have found the Genesis Serpent’s skin! Yes, that Genesis Serpent--though just a leftover piece of him,

A Shower of Rain

13251325 views66 comments44 favs

You have at least an intermittent belief.

re·frac·tion

15721572 views66 comments44 favs

bassackward/in the surreal/bathroom mirror

Going Back in Time: Song

14521452 views55 comments55 favs

If we go back in time We are living in tents If we go back in time We are living in caves We are fighting over rivers We are fighting over fields Near the soft edges of slime If we go back in time Nothing would have us And we had t

Unconditional Unbroken

627627 views11 comment22 favs

It's house has seen every day and every night From its windows stars are born and die

Planet Crabby

38843884 views77 comments44 favs

On Planet Crabby a boy met a girl and a girl met a boy but neither couple got anywhere because they dismissed their prospective partner as just plain too crabby. Alternative arrangements were unthinkable. This happened a number of times.

Hey Old Lady! Want To Buy A Reverse Mortgage?

15901590 views55 comments44 favs

Facebook just hit me with an ad for coping with memory loss, probably because I just turned 63. As far as my favorite social media site is concerned, I am now an Old Lady. When I asked my Facebook pals who are also Seniors what kind of promotions have been turning up…

Masquerade II

13771377 views1414 comments44 favs

. . . once you start reading and thinking about what he's saying, it's like looking at the reflection of your soul in a mirror . . .

Nonesuch

28032803 views55 comments44 favs

The morning of her suicide, Nonny Rice received a letter.

I Scream

19561956 views1818 comments33 favs

she peeled back the white wrapper from around her ice cream sandwich slowly, methodically

Hurricane Shutters

18591859 views44 comments66 favs

The thing that really gets you about the house is the hurricane shutters. They're up already, even though it's the end of May, because Buck's uncle is back in Rhode Island for the summer and he's prepped the house on Key Largo like Armageddon is coming.

Eating Dim Sum with Di

15161516 views55 comments44 favs

Lindsey and I are both talking loudly about things we would never talk about in real life, under the impression that this is all somehow instructional for Di. But I think it's really more about us. Di gives us an excuse to talk like two people unjustifiab