It was his taxi where he got stuck daily in crosstown traffic that sent him exploding with rage. This was the taxi where he was once held up at gunpoint and this was the taxi where he took naps during slow afternoons. This was the taxi whose seats he scrubbed with bleach and this was the taxi in which he picked us up from our mother’s house and drove us to school, home from basketball practice, and came to get us in, always, when we needed him.… more
Tag Archives: Working Class
Bible Study
FICTION by Garret MillerMen 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
True Outlaw
FICTION by Brent AtkinsonSanta Claus always gets the credit for delivering Christmas gifts, but it was tired, overworked bastards like me making sure everything got there on time, 13-speed, 500-horsepower white Freightliner pulling a dry van, and rather than shouting ho-ho-ho and whipping reins, we were throwing gears and blowing our horns at assholes in beemers cutting us off at every exit.… more
Apartment 1848
FICTION by Emily Strempler“Early for shift,” it said. “One minute, thirty-two seconds. Twenty-seven hours, fifty-two minutes, and twenty seconds of voluntary overtime have been logged to your account this period. Would you like to volunteer to give up a shift?”… more
Two Stories
FICTION by John A. McDermottThere was nothing to slide off her finger. No reason to reach out to Toby’s empty hand, turn it up, and set something in the middle of his warm palm. Nothing gleamed in the dim winter light. The ring was on a baggage cart, on the tarmac beyond the window, packed in Toby’s suitcase. But she knew it was coming.… more
Eat Fire
FICTION by Dustin M. HoffmanI slip on the heavy gloves again and hurl that sparking, spitting, burning motherfucker into the hopper, followed by a garbage can full of thin wrappings that stoke the flames, and now the back of our truck is a flaming mouth, nice and angry. … more
Sometimes The Air Stills
FICTION by Chris Di PlacitoA boy under the cancerous spell of his abusive father. A town under the deprived grip of misogyny and violence. Both stunted and silenced with fear.… more
The Bass
FICTION by Ashleigh Bryant PhillipsI know I can get better if I want to. Everybody can get better if they want to. At the Duck Thru the black ladies are talking ‘bout the Bradley man that used to be sheriff in Halifax County. He killed himself yesterday. Melissa’s rescue squad was called out to it. They say he… more
Blowout Clearance
FICTION by Charles Michael Fischer“Brian hasn’t always held a Mattress Fair sign on the side of the road… more
