It wasn’t so much the shouting that scared as the menace sitting eagerly behind it, the sense the cocksure sergeant and the corporals who took his belligerent lead could act like this with impunity with buy-in right up the chain of command. Menace was the modus operandi indoctrination through intimidation, with a generous side order of humiliation.… more
Category Archives: CREATIVE NONFICTION
Ringlets: A Horror Story
CREATIVE NONFICTION by Marshall MooreAfter you accept that no one can uphold competing, contradictory gender mandates, you can do whatever you goddamn want.… more
Drifting
CREATIVE NONFICTION by Will McMillanI think of my less than $200. From that, I subtract my half of the rent. And from that, I subtract the cost of my misery, of the sense my times about to run out, that everything I was supposed to become is slipping away. Every subtraction pushes me further into the negative, deeper into a spiraling surplus of regret.… more
No Business
CREATIVE NONFICTION by Lindsay MicheleForty-seven-year-olds got no business dating thirty-four-year-olds. But at this point, you have no idea he’s only thirty-four. You sense he’s probably younger than you, but y’all had the Inspector Gadget moment, and melanin is a bitch for age identification. You want a man, but you don’t want to rob the cradle. The apps suck, but at least they provide basic information, like education, location. Age.… more
Cigarettes
CREATIVE NONFICTION by Garrett MostowskiMs. Amy didn’t even know why she was sayin all that to our English class. But we knew what she meant by it. At least, I did. She was just feeling happy how her daddy loved her for whatever reason. That was it. And she was trying to tell us about that love and about not getting hooked on any kind of substances, and she was trying to say we can win our battles sometimes, if we keep showin up.… more
Try
CREATIVE NONFICTION by David P. BarkerWhen you’re battling addiction, they teach you not to share war stories—to not live in those because they feed the worst parts of ourselves. I’ve never walked the twelve steps so it became easier to live in the worst of it than work the shovel to get out of it. It became so easy to hate.… more
Boys in the Hall
CREATIVE NONFICTION by Kristy BellThat morning, we all nodded and chuckled, smug in our assessment that the pilot of that first airplane screwed up. Tragic, but not much different than a navigational error that ran a ship aground. It was unfortunate, certainly, as lives were undoubtedly lost. But heads would roll, and we’d move on.… more
Contemporary Parenting
CREATIVE NONFICTION by Andrew BertainaThe father preferred to talk about nature, about ideas, but neither of his kids were old enough for that now, so he found himself talking about overdoses.… more
Jimmy
CREATIVE NONFICTION by Stephanie YoungJimmy was not a person I would have considered having sex with. We had a symbiotic relationship in which all parties benefited except everyone else in the class. I can only imagine how cringy it was to witness, but in a room full of mirrors, it’s easy to trust no one else is looking at you.… more
Uncle Alberto Hates His Job
CREATIVE NONFICTION by Rina PalumboI like driving; he once told me you can go anywhere. He still had curly hair, mostly grey, and a mustache, which I think he dyed. He wore pointy shoes but no shiny clothing anymore. Just the dullness, the creases in his face hardening. The loathing of everything and everyone dampened only by the hard ache of time.… more
