The kitten-shaped egg timer on the corner of the mattress beeps and they switch positions. Now she is cradling him. His head rests on her slender left arm; her right arm she drapes around his waist
...
[+]
Short Fiction
Short Fiction
Portrait
3 min
There Is No One Backstage
Henry Miller is waiting for his cue to go on stage. He is about to become Aiden Bennington, a condescending trust-fund brat. But before that, there is a moment in which he is neither himself, nor an
...
[+]
Short Fiction
Stone Maidens
Billy got in touch. We must meet and soon. I have a secret to reveal that only you can understand – a true exquis. As if we hadn't lost touch years ago.
The charge of his excitement ran through ... [+]
The charge of his excitement ran through ... [+]
Short Fiction
How I Learned to Stay Alive
This story contains adult themes and is not appropriate for young or sensitive readers.
I met Sarkas at a club called Pose. Rolling on molly, eager to swallow the world, dancing with our hips ... [+]
I met Sarkas at a club called Pose. Rolling on molly, eager to swallow the world, dancing with our hips ... [+]
Short Fiction
Portrait
4 min
Laura's Reflection
Laura balanced on a stool beneath the skylight, the sun's warm pressure on her back. "Am I okay?" she asked her father.
"You'll do." He winked at her over the easel.
Downstairs, the front doo ... [+]
"You'll do." He winked at her over the easel.
Downstairs, the front doo ... [+]
Children's
Pirate Creek
Lake Tahoe, July 1st, 2018
Hello Benjamin,
I'm Erin. You don't know me, but I know a little bit about you. I found your library card in my bedroom in this cabin. Here's what I know about ... [+]
Hello Benjamin,
I'm Erin. You don't know me, but I know a little bit about you. I found your library card in my bedroom in this cabin. Here's what I know about ... [+]
Children's
The Queen's Riddle
Queen Riddles was a fun-loving monarch who liked riddles and jokes. She had spent most of her life working out answers to riddles, so there were few who could trick her. All it took was a little
...
[+]
Children's
A Hippo in the Kitchen
There was a hippo in the kitchen. No one knew how it got there, or when, but there was undeniably an enormous, sloppy, disheveled hippo in the kitchen.
"And," I said, examining the lunch my mothe ... [+]
"And," I said, examining the lunch my mothe ... [+]
Poetry
Contemporary
1 min
The Quarrel
Sun came out after rain.
Thought I'd never see the sun smile again.
Should have known
it wasn't ... [+]
Thought I'd never see the sun smile again.
Should have known
it wasn't ... [+]
Children's
The Bear Under the Bed
Sometimes I can't sleep. That's because of the bear under the bed.
One night, the bear was breathing hard.
When he breathed in, the bed lifted up off the floor.
When he breathed out, the ... [+]
One night, the bear was breathing hard.
When he breathed in, the bed lifted up off the floor.
When he breathed out, the ... [+]
Poetry
Contemporary
1 min
Something
Poetry
Melancholy
1 min
Flipside
Short Fiction
Super Troopers
On the days I visited the care center, I'd walk past this used bookshop on a quiet sidestreet. There were these four books in the shop window that always caught my eye. Other books would come and go
...
[+]
Short Fiction
Butterflies
Seven-year-old Isabella Thompson pressed her hands into the cool, moist dirt of her grandfather's garden. She peeled away the surface like an old scab. Beneath, a reddish-brown earthworm squirmed –
...
[+]
Short Fiction
Shiny, Pretty, Bright
Not long after she moved – ties cut, no looking back, he'd never find her on that side of town anyway, if he bothered to look – she found a string of Christmas lights at the thrift store when she
...
[+]
Poetry
Contemporary
1 min
When you needed the work
When you needed the work
But turned it down, had to,
So as to qualify for that SSI
That savings ... [+]
But turned it down, had to,
So as to qualify for that SSI
That savings ... [+]
Short Fiction
The Sword Swallower Cuts Their Tongue While Saying Goodbye
The weather was good today, you answer whenever I ask how are you, how was your day. I don't know when we stopped talking about what mattered the most because you won't tell me. I ask are you
...
[+]
Poetry
Eclipse
Short Fiction
The Night Library
I heard it before I saw it, a jingling of bells like the soundtrack to a corny Christmas movie. Then out of the mist rolled a small carriage, round and bright as a converted pumpkin. Florescent
...
[+]
Poetry
Contemporary
1 min
There’s a body in the blueberries
Short Fiction
Dallas Fireflies
It began at a sports bar, the kind of place the realtor would call "happy-go-lucky." In other words, if your barstool wasn't sticky, assume it had just been swabbed clean by CSI. There was graffiti
...
[+]
Short Fiction
Castrapitheca - City of the Ape
To call this elegant metropolis "The City of the Ape" does it a considerable disservice, but it is impossible to avoid. Every time we speak of something being as old as the Ape, we reaffirm the
...
[+]
Poetry
Contemporary
2 min
To My Students
Short Fiction
Man on the Doorstep
There was a man on the doorstep, all leatherette shoes and easy iron trousers. When I say doorstep I mean the pavement between the threshold and the hazard lines of a busy junction.
His head, too ... [+]
His head, too ... [+]