Recommended stories

Dungeon

618618 views33 comments22 favs

why were ghosts in wry mirrors feeding on hope?

My wife denies being my older self.

12031203 views44 comments33 favs

What are you, my judge?

Alcoholism Does Not Come Naturally to All Alocoholics

10581058 views44 comments11 fav

Couldn't get that first beer past his nose. Fared no better with wine, gagging on red and white. Then someone fixed him screwdriver.

Kinky Eggs

10451045 views88 comments00 favs

She plucks two eggs from the carton, weighs and measures them with the cup of her palm, the curve of her fingers.

Europa Sonnets - 5-8

751751 views44 comments11 fav

5. To hate one's race is always overrated;We built fair cities where there were no huts.The Frankfurt School should all have been castrated,And strung up by a noose made of their guts.Marcuse, you have caused the death of Europe,With Gramsci, Adorno, Freud and all…

SNAFU (March Paddy Whacker Challenge)

10821082 views66 comments11 fav

The unpublished writer remembered the carnage that surrounded his Foxhole in France and decided he was done praying. All around lay the evidence that no one was listening. The drunken pastor stumbled away.

Bumble Bee

15231523 views44 comments11 fav

This bumble-bee been following me around all day. Ever since I woke up, it's been with me. I just now smacked it to the ground and then it crawled on my bag and flew up to me again, zooming all around me; it's frightening me, a little. Bee…

Pageant Night

943943 views22 comments22 favs

All the baby monsters are being born on stage.

Esmée

10271027 views33 comments11 fav

Esmée sat alone at a table on the terrace at Marina Jack’s in Sarasota. She had been there ten minutes and no waitress had approached her.

A Tender Button

438438 views33 comments22 favs

He looked at a man in a straw hat on YouTube and thought “that could've been me, if I'd learned to play the guitar.” He savored the wistfulness of the moment. The pluperfect always made him sad. But the conditional was almost too much to bear. Octopi were a…

Mutiny

13141314 views11 comment00 favs

Almost on cue, Xavier emerges and is in the vendor’s face. “X,” as he is known around here, is indoctrinating the obvious newbie on the merits of showing up earlier and the logistics of placeholders and markers.

The Audacity of My Ass

741741 views22 comments22 favs

But then there were car windows bashed out on both sides Glass on the ground like Kristallnacht

The Night Before the Last Day of Summer

993993 views22 comments22 favs

Tonight is our last night to dream.

Nocturnal Bypass

10281028 views22 comments22 favs

As I fall to the ground I realize that in a few moments I will be experiencing a new kind of pain. The last pain. The last pain I will ever feel.

Still Pretty

639639 views33 comments11 fav

I saw this woman on a date at Denny’s Friday night With her 8-year-old son No ring, vacant stare Still pretty But wolfing down A stack of pancakes, Looking around the restaurant Occasionally At a party of kids From some church Wh

Eulogy

10121012 views22 comments11 fav

In one hand she cradles a cigarette, in the other a glass of red wine. Typically neither of these things would be allowed in here, and on this occasion it was thought that it would be better to let her do what she wanted.

Scenes From The Alternative Nativity

817817 views44 comments11 fav

The three kings decide to leave their kingdoms, all on their own without family, retainers, armies or servants, and wander about the middle east carrying valuable items.

Jack Ketch in Hell

884884 views22 comments11 fav

Lost in the booth of Mr Punch's dreams,Jack Ketch flinches at the imagesflickering across torn curtains.The chirpy projectionistsits in his nest,flinging pictures:A snake, rising from a discarded pair of clown's trousers.A monkey, balancing on a watermelon.A burning sofa.A…

The Here Here Here Lately

582582 views44 comments11 fav

electron metastasis

To The Guy Who Sat Next To Me On The Flight Home From Amsterdam

982982 views33 comments00 favs

I guess you felt more comfortable holding your Moby Dick

Route Four

12091209 views44 comments11 fav

The little girl spooned strawberry yogurt into her mouth as a pleasant morning breeze swept across the balcony of the hotel. The girl lifted the cup and stuck her tongue inside to lick the yogurt off the edges. Across the small round table, the girl's mother sat…

Traveling Lightheaded

11201120 views44 comments11 fav

He lit my cigarette even though he didn't want me to smoke. Buying me drinks all night, he didn't complain, but he thought I drank too much.

Peeping to See if Spring has Sprung

803803 views44 comments11 fav

as if someone had spilled a bag of perfect diamonds on the world.

Before the Dance

10491049 views33 comments22 favs

A woman walked in from the kitchen. She sat next to him as he poured what was left in the whiskey bottle into each glass. “They could’ve given us more time to make a payment,” he said.

Frothing At the Fountain

11341134 views44 comments11 fav

When I came back from California the second time, in the summer of 1965, I was the first around our town to wear my hair long, influenced by the Beatles. And I bought a bunch of blue caps that everyone in our gang wore, with the number “69” sown on

Tuesday Night

11351135 views44 comments11 fav

She comes in with her white bag with its floral patterns scattered, almost accidentally, all around it

for da carey

13191319 views22 comments22 favs

mr cummings sounded too formal for a man who didn’t use capital letters. As she climbed the four flights of stairs to the flat, she sang to herself, “I carry your heart (I carry it in my heart).”

in caring

662662 views22 comments22 favs

familiar people passing closely faces we recognize but cannot place

Tuna

954954 views33 comments22 favs

Falling asleep remembering lies that had been built around lies Lies to impress people Lies to make life more convenient Lies, I didn’t even know why I told them.

Testing, Testing

795795 views55 comments11 fav

I awoke sweating like a Mormon at an anti-bigamy conference.