No survivalist,
no woodsman,
no wilderness expert,
he chucked hatchet after hatchet
at the wooden plyboard target.
Thwock, thwock, thwock.
He tossed throwing hatchet
after throwing hatchet
until his arm was noodly and sore.
It was supposed to be fun.
It was supposed to be something.
It was swaddled in flannel, musk and a simulacrum of manliness.
He nursed his IPA, waiting to feel something.
Joseph S. Pete is an award-winning journalist, an Iraq War veteran, an Indiana University graduate, a book reviewer, and a frequent guest on Lakeshore Public Radio. He is a 2017 Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee who was named the poet laureate of Chicago BaconFest, a feat that Geoffrey Chaucer chump never accomplished. His literary work and photography have appeared in Wink, Dogzplot, Stoneboat, The High Window, Synesthesia Literary Journal, Steep Street Journal, Beautiful Losers, New Pop Lit, The Grief Diaries, Gravel, The Offbeat, Oddball Magazine, The Perch Magazine, Rising Phoenix Review, Chicago Literati, Bull Men’s Fiction, shufPoetry, The Roaring Muse, Prairie Winds, Blue Collar Review, Lumpen, The Rat’s Ass Review, The Tipton Poetry Journal, Euphemism, Jenny Magazine, Vending Machine Press and elsewhere. His book Lost Hammond, Indiana is coming out soon.