Recommended stories

Wounds & The People Who Poke Them

15631563 views22 comments22 favs

My friend once told me about this island of trash in the Pacific. He said that if you threw a piece of trash in any body of water it would find its way there somehow.

Ah Ha

13151315 views22 comments22 favs

He started to shudder and stutter as he got closer to it. Time went at a different rate. The gravitational field was getting stronger. His resolve to enter the point of Nothing grew stronger.

Coming Through the Rye

21182118 views44 comments11 fav

As I stood in my mother’s closet with my niece Chloe, and read the letter aloud, I was shocked to discover I had shared with my mother details about my love life.

Wedding Bells & Space Junk [July challenge]

18431843 views11 comment11 fav

Right away, like toadstools, there were crackpot theories. The first: that kids out on the lake dock, against fire department warnings...

Chicagoo (from Swink literary journal)

17741774 views11 comment11 fav

When Kim handed me some of her husband’s condoms—“Here, use these”—out of one of their bedroom dresser drawers, could she sense the astonishment I was trying my best not to show?

Good Belongs to You

13471347 views22 comments11 fav

I hope you enjoyed the celebration last night. Good things always come to you. I thought your family would never go home. I didn't get to sleep this morning until 2:59, although I had set my alarm to 6:10. I didn't want you to miss your plane. At daybreak,…

Mama's Boys

19861986 views22 comments11 fav

A pale face was illuminated by the street light. A voice rasped, “Charlie?” “Do I know you?” “It's Bill.” The side of his little brother's thin face

It's All in the Interpretation

12391239 views33 comments11 fav

a random sticker that says, Repent Sinner, and a club lineup snaking around the corner and sirens and that urine smell at alley's mouth

Eloise

12331233 views22 comments11 fav

Even at five years old, I could tell that Eloise was haunted by ghosts that shook her core, leaving her dangling and seeking stability in slowly repeating her compulsive routines.

A College Town

15161516 views44 comments11 fav

@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } …

Souvenirs

14541454 views22 comments22 favs

It is a hot August night — the same kind you remember from that summer after high school graduation. A cool breeze blows in off the ocean, sweeping across the boardwalk just hard enough to dry the …

"It's the dead of midnight, and Orion wheels round..."

763763 views22 comments11 fav

It's the dead of midnight, and Orion wheels round- With passing road-streams as its parallax, cars More distant from us, as the next one's windows Blocks the view of riders free from traffic lanes; I Am not your window. As you glide, or go to…

The Reading

811811 views33 comments11 fav

His wife leans her head against a beam with her eyes closed while he reads out loud. Her mouth shut tightly, almost twisted shut. She’s so weary. She raises her collar and sinks further into her neck. When he shouts, or explodes – nothing.

Five Million Yen: Chapter 61

11901190 views33 comments11 fav

Dan Arris sat in Chez Colette enjoying a roulade of veal stuffed with root vegetables. He was not a happy man.

The DreydelMaker (excerpt)

14241424 views33 comments11 fav

Gimmel. As if ordained.

Puke

10611061 views22 comments11 fav

What the fuck is that smell? Puke? Pine-Sol? Oh shit!Back seat of a cop car.Again?What is it this time?“Excuse me, officer? Where the fuck are my clothes?”

Clean Out Your Desk, Naps. You're Being Replaced.

37563756 views22 comments11 fav

Sunday mornings my mother got up early—and dragged me kicking and screaming out of bed and into my nicest jeans and sweater. I have still never thanked her. (I’m borrowing, of course, but that doesn’t make it any less true.)

Fuzzy Mollis

16391639 views33 comments11 fav

My small kitchen has barely enough room to turn around in, yet I had the feeling I was being watched. When I experience it again, just seconds later, I realize it was eyes watching, actual eyes, not a camera or machine.

gravelortian part 2

951951 views22 comments11 fav

"you have plastic in you"

Caleb

10021002 views22 comments11 fav

CALEBHe'd get up every day,don his clothes and tendto rote ablutions. He tried not to think too much.Because he knew what that would bring --the tethers he lost; failed causes,the last lover, who knew some things.Instead, he kept his eyes straight ahead,marked time,…

The Arctic Express

13171317 views22 comments22 favs

Sky: Snows, turns dark. Street: Freezes. Remains on a hill. Traffic: None on this block. Two: Did I miss the bus? One: You either missed it, or it didn't come. Two: Hasn't come. One: One or the other. Which one? Two: I don't know; I asked you. One: I meant which…

The Room Below

17041704 views11 comment11 fav

The closed door swallowed up both voices, and all I could make out afterward were muffled pleas and angry answers that died completely.

Ratatouille

850850 views22 comments22 favs

The body receives its embrace but / only by the anti-body.

gravelortian part 15

10221022 views22 comments22 favs

Eager to please the guards, doctors and preachers

The Bison's Alimony

11941194 views66 comments11 fav

The bison know a lot about Longfellow

Dissection (II)

15101510 views22 comments22 favs

She wields the blade.

Wilting Magnolia

11041104 views22 comments22 favs

White sneakers cry, dripping from the power lines.

Everything to do with you

15071507 views11 comment11 fav

I don't know, I could go on all day with these little niches he found in every person that made them at least a little interesting. Everyone collects baseball cards.

Typing Right On Fictionaut, Take 1

12151215 views55 comments11 fav

We went driving on Sundays.

Pheasant Hunt

18131813 views22 comments22 favs

“I can’t remember if it goes in or out,” was the reply.