Tag Archives: Masculinity

Cheeseburger Man

Cheeseburger Man

FICTION by

Because Joe’s refraining from guzzling but is nursing his first, icy, Friday night beer but longs for a serious chug… because he understands that his independent third-grader, soon to be in fourth grade, is eager to impress her old dad… Joe has promised to wait and watch from the Falcon until everything is ready for pickup.more

Prisoner of War

Prisoner of War

FLASH NONFICTION by

A writer for the hometown newspaper wanted to tell my grandfather’s story and tried to coax it out for years. “It wouldn’t be fair to the men that I served with that didn’t make it back, so ain’t nothing I can tell you.” He had lived through hell and revisiting it with a reporter for some article on personal glory was something he didn’t intend on doing.more

Three Essays

Three Essays

FLASH NONFICTION by

Why do men—most of us, at least—grin through our cracked teeth and dance on our broken ankles, but then crumble, just crumble, when our noses begin to drip? Why aren’t we more embarrassed to be seen being sick, chronically ill, unsensationally uncomfortable? Why aren’t we less embarrassed to be in serious pain?more

Clint

Clint

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Clint preferred showing over telling, the width of his shoulders, the location of his feet. He invited the clients to watch him, to learn from his form, his steady, even reps, balanced sets that worked each muscle group. Clint was a specimen of physical human potential. We all had something to learn.more

Bible Study

Bible Study

FICTION by

Men like James don’t know softness, don’t know a whole lot other than work. They still look for God, though. Even after hours on the floor at Honda, they crawl towards church fronts, hungry and tired and missing their wives and brothers and sisters and cousins and mothers. The gods they know during the day are not gentle like the one they are here looking for. more

Trigger Warning

Trigger Warning

CREATIVE NONFICTION by

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

Mementos

Mementos

FICTION by

We’d been cutting weight for weeks, wearing garbage bags in the sauna and running a few miles two or three times a day. I’d already shucked fifteen pounds just to save space for booze, but I started to worry Mikey would be a downer all night. Worst thing about a guy like that—he gets you worried you did something wrong, like all his problems are your fault.more

Chalk Outline

Chalk Outline

FICTION by

The downtown lights blazed in the evening air. Slouched behind the wheel, Ismael watched as Loretta’s staff—the few whose physical presence was deemed “essential”—broke at the lobby door and hunched to their cars. Loretta, gone for 15 cold days.more

What Men Doo

What Men Doo

FICTION by

Maybe I was a little maníaco because I only thought about sex during our all-male camping trips in Puerto Peñasco every Easter vacation, beginning when I was twelve. Dad would load up his white work van with a bevy of motorcycles and minibikes and enough food, beer, and soda to last a bunch of fathers and sons an entire week.more

Real Men Don’t Hit Their Wives

Real Men Don’t Hit Their Wives

FICTION by

Lewis relishes, slightly and mischievously, the young couple’s naïve discourse about bridesmaids and flower centerpieces, as if it all means something. They are blissfully unaware of the inevitable mutual loathing that plagues all marriages.

She’s your problem now, Benny-boy. Enjoy paying for Amazon deliveries the rest of your life.more