Recommended stories

Of Soulful Cheese and Melted Needs

15041504 views55 comments11 fav

Two fine-young-things scan the menu board of In-N-Out Burger off Interstate 101. Dressed like twins -- hoop earrings, tank-tops and mini-skirts, ballet pumps — you could hardly tell them apart, except for their Cleopatra and Marilyn Manson hairstyles. As they…

Envy the book

12841284 views44 comments11 fav

Once, during an argument, she had said, It’s like there’s another woman, except she doesn’t exist. Which sometimes it really did feel like, a betrayal, being thrown over for someone else. The muse. She could have shot the muse.

Casablanca Or Something Like It

11311131 views22 comments11 fav

"More and more levels of physicality. And his eyes, man. His eyes were all wet, and... sparkly.” “Wow.” “Yeah. And before I can stop the escalation, he's massaging my heart.” “Get the f__k out..."

Full Tilt Boogie

17791779 views55 comments11 fav

Your tongue is enlarging... wait, it’s growing hair. No, wait, it’s planarian flatworms, an earthy taste oozing down your throat. A terrible itching spreads from your solar plexus, under your skin everywhere. You know if you scratch even once, you won

Gravity

12551255 views33 comments11 fav

"seventy five degrees longitude submerged in holy rivers out of my mind emerge anointed paramahamsas"

Remember?

11231123 views44 comments11 fav

We'd been talking about the baby, about what we would do, when the women began fighting after the wedding held in the church next to our apartment. Their fierce and piercing arguments crawled up the walls to the second story window we sat next to. We'd looked outside…

Squirm

12571257 views33 comments11 fav

“We should start a virgins' support group,” said Cindi one autumn afternoon. We were sitting in the bay window of the Campus Coffee Cavern ...

Sea Shell

14091409 views33 comments11 fav

Useless.

Oatmeal

942942 views44 comments11 fav

She found herself suddenly awake at five. She laid there in their bed while downstairs the coffee maker waited for her to press its button so it might gurgle and hiss, filling the pot with wakefulness. The dishwasher waited too, waited for her to throw its latch…

Capt. Love's Last Command (poem)

11331133 views66 comments11 fav

The old man is dead, body propped in its cart like the dead El Cid strapped on his horse by Jimena to save Valencia, and yet...

Dragonfly

10391039 views44 comments11 fav

Dragonfly She danced out of the burning rubble, wrapped in a shawl made of iridescent silk. It must have been her grandmother's. Her arms were wings, the silk translucent and fluttering. Fire fell from the sky. Thatched roofs, walls of mud-daubed sticks, the huts…

Blueberries

16711671 views66 comments11 fav

Cold water shocked Ernest's face. The evening with Gracie had his nerves hot and popping. She was his fifth date and the closest to his memory of Sadie in college so far. He looked up at himself in the bathroom mirror with his mouth agape. Redness flooded…

Have You Seen Me?

11131113 views55 comments11 fav

It’s as she reaches into the fridge for the carton of half-and-half with the grainy waxy photo of the little girl—Last Seen 10/2/06—that the memory surfaces: “Hey. That’s mine.”

Why They Cried: Jisette

15521552 views44 comments00 favs

There was that long weekend she'd spent lazing around a suite at the Beverly Wilshire between the Golden Globes and the Oscars with the suddenly now married actor, and then there had been Cabo. This was before the current thing and before the thing before

No Flowers in June

11431143 views99 comments00 favs

Of flowers there Are none In June No sun Upon my cheek The gentle breeze Stirs me not The smiles They cloud my vision Birds they Sing their songs But I hear Them not When tears Rain down My heaven.

A Game of Dodge Ball

12341234 views22 comments22 favs

Mo Dean woke up sober. And tired. Tired of life, of soiled pants, rash, vomit, and whiskey sweat. Tired of holes in his pockets and blisters on his feet, of hanging signs asking for dimes and getting only pennies. And most of all, tired of the police.

The Alarm

723723 views44 comments11 fav

Rain pours through the ceiling and the building's fire alarm sounds repeated bursts of loud abrasive distortion 1 2 3

Slime

15071507 views22 comments22 favs

Once or twice he sees her around town when he’s out driving but other than that, I mean, it’s not like he was stalking her, he didn’t know where she went to school or what she did for a part-time job, he didn’t care, he wasn’t interested.

Skins of my past

848848 views33 comments11 fav

The past follows, battered, bruised, always behind

Homeland Security

937937 views22 comments11 fav

By the time I got back to the island only Henson was still alive. He didn’t speak; the gun said it all.

Lessons Learned

11631163 views22 comments11 fav

What was so bad about other religions that their followers were automatically condemned to eternal damnation? The priests were so convincing when they claimed Christ was the only true way.

The Chords are Clean, the Growl is Real

11671167 views55 comments11 fav

"Good, it's Link Wray again,"

Renoir: Le Moulin de la Galette

889889 views55 comments11 fav

Crowded into the heart are impressions past These are not recognized in the available light of the present. So they sit in the dappled shade drinking, the clear glass partially filled with various and red liquid. Hat tilted back. Black top hat S

sidewalk cafe at night. van Gogh

10971097 views33 comments11 fav

The heart of those stars is a dab of yellow light. The darkness of the blue night appearing so deep because of the downward strokes of the actual sky interspersed with a violet that is almost black above the truly black silhouettes of the city buildings

A Deal With Tomorrow

11171117 views33 comments11 fav

I suppose I'd rather Tomorrow be heroic. It would make the passing of time less villainous.

Stories of Love Under a Full Moon

13701370 views22 comments11 fav

What do you do when someone’s in love and you know it’s wrong?

Love at First Sight

17661766 views22 comments11 fav

Life ascends gradually—just like they always said. I stop counting on immediate transformations—the overnight best-seller, instant enlightenment—and instead focus on what I can do: Writing a little each day and making it to Mass on the weekend. I even giv

Mercury Unbound

955955 views55 comments11 fav

~!~

NOLA's Nightcap

896896 views00 comments11 fav

I need to be commended, despite the wine glass that threw itself at your sister's head of rollers. Imagine a pear in the deli meat aisle ripening behind glass...

The Silver T to the West Side Highway

12621262 views33 comments22 favs

They watched the seven o'clock news.