Recommended stories

Sadie Hawkins Day

41634163 views77 comments99 favs

It’s Leap Year and my school is observing Sadie Hawkins Day, which means the sixth-graders have a dance where the girls ask the boys to dance and the rest of us get to dress up like hillbillies.

Slight of Hand

12291229 views2020 comments1212 favs

Our ironies don’t make us happy

Gaza Suite

11771177 views1414 comments1111 favs

Tender bodies sizzle on the grill.

I Remember Kitty D.

14341434 views2020 comments1111 favs

When the car arrived, Kitty bounded out, lipstick-stained cigarette dangling, silver hair tightly teased. We could not escape her hug, smelling of peppermint and Aqua-Net and Jean Nate.

Traces in the Winter Sky

20022002 views1818 comments1212 favs

Exhaling slowly and deeply, Tyler settled his back in against the saddle of the tree's broad trunk and let it all go.

How I learned what to pray for

14881488 views1414 comments99 favs

“Mommy,” the voice was thin as a fledgling's. “I'm here, baby,” I said. An arm rose from the pavement and small fingers wound themselves into my…

small pleasures

10521052 views1414 comments1111 favs

sheets, white, coarse redolent with Clorox

Irish Salad

14741474 views1818 comments88 favs

Overnight, I felt drunk, as if headed for hangover, but I hadn't drunk enough to cause it. What caused it? Superstitions dialed in sleep.

Window

15391539 views1717 comments1010 favs

Can you write a 250-word story without using the letter "e"? Ruth's back is curving forwards, folding, softly caving into tomorrow.

Autumn

15421542 views1717 comments1010 favs

The leaves are telegrams sent from the branches to the wind, saying, “it's over stop don't send kisses stop forget me.”

Slather

15131513 views1212 comments1212 favs

Your soap on the shelf in the shower melts with my every hair wash and I'll miss it the way I should have missed you.

The Bride was a Corpse

202202 views2020 comments1010 favs

6% of anorexics die of their disorder, most of sudden heart failure.

Abyss

12351235 views1515 comments1111 favs

When Lois finally found him down there, Johnny was wedged between a large rock and the trunk of an old, long since fallen, cottonwood tree. She said as she got to him, she heard his gurgling breath, fighting fiercely to stay alive. When she saw the deep, gathering, red…

19__, What I Wanted

17861786 views1717 comments1111 favs

A snap.

More About Nils Whose Real Name is Georges

13511351 views1414 comments1010 favs

I think he viewed Communion as an act of hygiene that allowed him to go on being fiery and self-determined.

A Friend From Back Then

11741174 views1212 comments1212 favs

That afternoon she met me in the lobby of my hotel and we simply smiled at each other in the elevator going up to my room where we sat on the couch for about three hours and told of our lives, of being apart, for so many years, then sensing our time was nearly used up, I…

El Dia de los Muertos

10701070 views1414 comments1111 favs

They wear their bodies recklessly, these cempazuchitl,
 these flowers of the dead.

Itch

14471447 views2424 comments1010 favs

Clayton had a grin like the hand of a beast that stretched as long as her gravel road...

What She Remembers (Annie)

21062106 views2222 comments77 favs

The first thing she remembers is sunshine, then her own dawning, and feeling the lumps on her head and bruises on her face and pain in her heart and aloness of her soul.

I've Got a Secret

15741574 views1818 comments1212 favs

There's a man sitting in my room holding a jar of my ashes. That's what he claims.

Rwanda Suite: Buzzed

14271427 views1212 comments1212 favs

They'd taken so much: ivory, rubber, copper, gold. Wealth for the grabbing. No remorse.

If This Were Baltimore

16621662 views1515 comments88 favs

If This Were Baltimore East A spray of change in the lilies and loose rubber, she pulled close to the wall. She smiled at the trucks, her handful of loot. Hallelujah, he said, converting. West Like 4 miles of cakes, they counted…

The Stop

13021302 views1313 comments1111 favs

You were busy, moving, alert inconstant motion; packingbooks, clothes, paintings;deciding yes to this, no to that. I was simply tryingto settle somewhere in the space.We'd known it for years when things were in place. Now, this abrupt interruption of…

You are not Medusa

286286 views2121 comments99 favs

.

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

20212021 views1515 comments1111 favs

Mighta been a fake.

Summertime City

16331633 views1212 comments1212 favs

Columbus Avenue, I’m the tense union of poor city rich city/ gentrification.

Where You Lay Your Dreams

18141814 views1616 comments1212 favs

In all my marriage stories, I am both victim and hero.

My Son Thinks He's French

20892089 views2020 comments99 favs

My son thinks he's French.His accent was cute at first, but it's starting to get on my nerves. If he asks for another glass of Beaujolais I'm gonna go to jail for child abuse.Yesterday, I walked upstairs to make him turn his new Jacques Brel album down and I swear it…

Pillow

20862086 views1515 comments1111 favs

The sky was an over-bleached sheet, stretched to the point of ripping. Everything worn but clean. He was saying he'd be happier if we lived in Canada. The sun seemed very close, like a star at the top of a Christmas tree. Maybe I could pull it down. Our baby had…

Peace in the Backyard

17281728 views1919 comments1111 favs

No lies in the sky