When I was learning the multiplication tables one day, Ms. Brower came in to tell me they were sending my mother upstate. I thought that meant into the air, someplace in the clouds. As if what must happen to those in such mental trouble cannot be rendered here on the ground. Their state must be taken up.… more
Tag Archives: Military
Prisoner of War
FLASH NONFICTION by Travis TurnerA 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
Gun Goes Off
FICTION by Odin MeadowsThe way Serge held the pistol with both hands firmly gripping the handle in front of him and feet at shoulder’s length apart, it made Dodge’s heart thump in his chest. His mouth was dry. He licked his lips. Serge was walking him through proper gun handling procedure, but it was hard to pay attention.… more
Trigger Warning
CREATIVE NONFICTION by Grant ShimminIt 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
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
Shooting at Hurricanes
FICTION by Mario Aliberto IIIPop-Pop never talked about how the person you are when you ship off isn’t the person you are when you ship back. How a war story is only a story if it didn’t happen to you.… more
Hog Heaven
FICTION by Gary V. PowellApparently, lack of empathy is the one psychological trait shared by all elite warriors, all special forces guys, Max included. It’s that singular trait that allows them to kill without hesitation or remorse. Or, in the case of Max’s current job, the trait that allows him to acquire struggling companies with the sole goal of leveraging their value before gutting them and selling assets piecemeal.… more
Gender Soldier
FICTION by Rain RobinsonThere was a time that you can now no longer remember, when someone scraped you off their shoe and taught you how to be human. How to have arms and legs, how to have a face and a body, how to wear clothes and cut your hair and see things and be seen. There was an adjustment period, but after that it was a gloriously certain time, when meaning could be plucked fully-formed from thin air like ripe fruit. You loved that.… more
Anchor Detail
FICTION by Kristy BellI lifted a quick prayer for that fisherman, even as I watched him throw his back into reversing his course. What chance does a little guy have in this world, you know?… more
David Tromblay
BULL Interview by David TromblayPeople who had childhoods like mine did so comfortably numb. It was normal. It was all I ever knew. But here’s something I didn’t put in the book: in high school (after I got away from my father) I had friends who lived inside the foster care system. I used to go to their homes and hang out after school sometimes, because when I was little, I used to fantasize about being taken away and put into foster care. I knew it would be so much better.… more
