Recommended stories

Getting Out

13551355 views33 comments33 favs

“We have flown the air like birds and swum the sea like fishes, but have yet to learn the simple act of walking the earth like brothers.” ― Martin Luther King Jr.

Quel Bordel

12281228 views22 comments33 favs

Our friend, M. Dieu-Juste partnered in a used car business with a Vietnamese mechanic, Mr. Tran. Cars however, were not their only venture.

Chinese Jacks

18281828 views11 comment33 favs

"Carl, do you think we can fit all of our furniture into that red house?" Jeanne asks. She wonders how easily you could burn a red house down, if a claw foot tub will melt or be left standing in a field of black grass. He reaches for her hair, the dizzy smell…

Surprise!

983983 views44 comments22 favs

We were fleeing hurricane Katrina. We stopped somewhere in Texas at a roadside diner, but found a sign that said it was closed. We were so hungry. All of a sudden as we sat there in our car, the shop's owner knocked on the window and asked what he could g

Peace and Cribbage

16661666 views55 comments11 fav

Some things are meant to be repeated

Left of the Miracle

910910 views55 comments22 favs

Wake me up on payday Don’t throw in the towel

Passing by Pallanteum

14021402 views66 comments22 favs

Passing by PallanteumOr ‘Dido's Song' Form: Double Sestina, iambic pentameter, rhymed Who knows of hell, knows less of paradise? I've known them both, when vanquished in your eyes, When draws the kelp where lost men had their graves Below…

Advice from the Receptionist

11831183 views33 comments11 fav

The president is truculent today.

Extracts

34163416 views44 comments22 favs

I nicked this from a 12-year-old famine victim living under a bridge in Disneyland.

Second Career

987987 views33 comments44 favs

“Just how many different bipeds try to hide their nakedness?” “Only one. And that'd be us, idiot.”, Twinkle responded. “Then, why don't we mind showing certain parts of our bodies?”, she then asked. Twinkle could see it was going to be…

The Party

20222022 views33 comments33 favs

Mike poured vermouth over his Campari and ice. “Gotta say, you have the most amazing view up here.” “Thanks. It's great when I'm washing dishes.” “Yeah, and the view in your front room isn't bad either. This cocktail …

What I Learned From Magazines This Week

15321532 views33 comments33 favs

At least ten people have been shot by their dogs since 2004, usually in hunting accidents. (AARP Bulletin, January February 2016)If somebody phones you claiming to be with the IRS, it's a scam. The real IRS will only open communications with a taxpayer via the U.S.…

The Loam

16761676 views11 comment11 fav

From above we see the trampled grass circling the house. Trampled grass from where half starved alligators circled the house, hissing and issuing low moans. Half starved alligators deranged by the red skies circled the house in the late August of the last year. Beginning in…

Maybe Just One More Then

11681168 views66 comments33 favs

You don't deserve this poem and I don't deserve to write it. Whatever time we have left is way better spent sitting in a sunny garden with a good interesting book and with a beautiful golden delicious apple to bite into. But…

Invoking Fire

14941494 views55 comments22 favs

We talk of his time in the jungle.

The After-Sex Song

14401440 views66 comments22 favs

After sex he would get on his old refurbished upright piano and always play that same song. We came to know it as the After-Sex Song. It was really quite lovely, and touching. I think it made us all feel better around that building. Yeah, I remember t

Damaged Goods

13761376 views33 comments33 favs

As she slunk to her topless Mercedes sparkling curbside, wax job hand rubbed in Hamburg, testosterone heads turned wishing similar treatment.

Day Seven

11771177 views44 comments33 favs

Once again, I start the engine.

Inside Out

14971497 views33 comments33 favs

Who hasn’t at some point of the day wanted to dredge up everything in your pocket just to see what it is.

Pension Plan

12351235 views33 comments22 favs

Let's put a cork in this drain.

1973, what I wanted

13791379 views77 comments33 favs

Not the torn magazine page, not the smell of ink, not the sweat of palm nor the froth of irish spring

Devoured Worship

17311731 views66 comments22 favs

This wasn't going to be about her anymore.She tied her strong purple balloon to the neck of the wounded horse. Her skirt and her top felt like armor's breath. The tingle across her scalp felt warm. Small rug scrapes that made her think of her last dog, before she died.This…

The Sound of Barcelona

26152615 views33 comments22 favs

There’s no obvious difference between two years ago and now but it’s not the moment to contemplate the reason for the racket or why it took so long. Instead, it’s the time to renounce atheism and thank God that the noise has finally finished

How To Make It In America

19551955 views1010 comments11 fav

The punchable faces in Manhattan multiply like cancer...

Spiders

17141714 views33 comments33 favs

Ten am, and the piledriver behind Rhys's eyes shows no sign of mercy. Beyond the safety glass, caverns of empty air tumble down and out to where the edge of the city is lost in the murk. The figures on the screen pulse and phase with the hideous internal rhythm of his…

Mothers

13821382 views44 comments33 favs

No, no mother’s tenderness: she shows no sign of that … Do you know that she has them make their own bed? No, not the girl: the boys too! Yes, the boys. She humiliates them.

before hell freezes over completely

14011401 views44 comments33 favs

I remember how silk felt against skin, dressed in my damn flimsy things, while the cold bit my nipples. How I would lie in your arms when I was young, after being awakened from my pubescent slumber. (Enough of that!) In a rush to grow up for good, holdi

Soft Serve

10411041 views22 comments22 favs

Smooth slope-topped plateaus Turn liquid as latex, With ridgelines of pearls That separate and run At the rigidly textured Patterned wafercone. Edible scepter, Its liquefying cap Is strictly temporary And mostly…

Coffee Foam

14761476 views55 comments33 favs

We entered the castle at dawn. The dim light feebly illumined an array of antiques and medieval weapons. Bats dangled from the high vaulted ceiling, enfolded in membranous wings. What were once chandeliers radiating light were encrusted with webs and the ancient wax…

PARK

16561656 views44 comments33 favs

Shadows from a star Never too close Never too far