Mar 18, 2013
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Aunt Maggie Teaches Mary Rita about Death
Maggie Jackson
Oh honey, you know good and well there ain’t no accidents. The Good Lord giveth, child, and when He sees fit to, He can give like this potato patch when the rain’s been good, and the whole world fills up with blessings just as fast as you can dig em. But life sure enough goes the other way too, girl, and when God decides to take away, He does it just as quick as mines collapsing or bodies freezing stiff against a sudden scream of wind or mothers bringin babies to a world they have to leave. Can’t know God’s plan, sweet-pea, and it’d be foolish to try it, so we claw at the earth for all the blessings we can get but don’t ask questions when we have to fill the holes with what we love. Darlin, in this town, we keep on diggin cause there ain’t nothin else to do.
Body
Julia Gantman
Some days I want to unscrew my earlobes and replace them with sunflowers to let in more sun and less static chatter. Some days I want to turn the mind inside out and let the pond scum drain until all that’s left is an open field. I want to shatter the glass animals wedged in my rib cage and let the fragments prickle through their fierceness. I want my legs to evaporate into placid clouds so standing still without a map wouldn’t be an option. My eyes would fill up, become balloons, and float above me, where everything looks miniature and quaint. I would burry my hands in the earth and let them take root until the fingernails find a space in the deep clutter of it all.
Welcome to K College
Dion Bullock
“The dictionary teaches us that struggle always comes before success."
This damn school 40,000 for a degree and more confusion. Confusion about what to do in life: Grad school, job Work until 65, retire 401 K, retire in Florida, sunny beaches, and attractive women, that I’m too old to look at, Erectile Dysfunction. All so that I can be specialized So that I can be an expert Half the stuff I won’t remember. The stuff I learned last week, Can’t remember. Party with girls with no rhythm First times and sloppy seconds Jungle juice Chasing vodka with strange lips Wake up at 8:30, class through 2:30 homework, groups, and socialize through 2:30 Repeat Repeat Repeat everything your professor says Get A on the exam Stuck on that same GPA Walk through cafeteria Awkward stagger Search for someone to eat with Kid from class I barely know The bar is calling The bar is calling Waldo’s Thirsty Thursdays Friday morning hangover
evreu
Andrew Parker
the black rat space hollow between two brick walls piled high until a sledge flies true leaving double helix trails of dust from mother’s hands and the whole structure shatters cries and crumbles
Pool Shark
David Landskroener
Kyle hurt his knee getting out of the pool and he was crying really loud and it was really annoying. I asked him if baby was alright and if he wanted his rattle but he got really mad at me. And then he started punching me and his mom came and made him stop and then she saw the blood on his knee and she grabbed him and told me to stay put and not to get in the pool and she dragged Kyle all the way around the pool to see if they maybe had a Band-Aid at the concession stand. I sat next to the pool on the rough concrete which was really warm and almost too hot to sit on but not quite. I looked at my fingers and they looked like raisins and I laughed and I sucked on my pinky to see if I could make my finger smooth again but it didn’t work and then I looked at my toes and they were raisins too. “Hey buddy you look like you were having fun in the pool” a man who was really tall said and he had a black bag on a strap around his neck and he was standing so close to me and I hadn’t even noticed him. “Yes we were having fun” I said “but my friend Kyle hurt his knee so his mom brought him over to the concession stand to see if they had a Band-Aid.” “Oh” the man said “that’s not good.” I said “I hope he gets in trouble because he was punching me.” “That’s not very nice” the man said. “Yes” I said “he was being really mean and punching me for no reason.” “I meant that it’s not very nice to hope your friend gets in trouble” said the man. “Oh” I said. Then the man asked me if I wanted ten dollars and I said “yes I want ten dollars that’s so much money and I could be rich so where is the money?” He told me to come into the locker room with him and he would give me the money because he left it in there. I said sure and if Kyle and his mom came back I could just say I was using the bathroom. I followed the man into the locker room and he went into one of the shower stalls and I went in there too. He closed the door and then took the bag off of his neck and took out a really fancy-looking camera. “That looks like a fancy camera” I said “but where’s my ten dollars?” “I’ll give it to you” the man said “but I was wondering if I could take some pictures first. It won’t take long.” “What kind of pictures” I said, and then I thought that maybe he was one of those men that Grandma always talked about who wanted to touch my penis and take pictures of me naked and then I got scared. But the man said “I just want to take pictures of your feet because I work for a shoe company and we need all sorts of different pictures of feet so we can know how to design our shoes.” “Okay” I said. The man turned on the camera and then he squatted down and asked if it was okay if he touched my feet. I said sure and then he picked up my right foot and started squeezing it and rubbing it and it tickled and I laughed. “You have very nice feet” the man said and then he said he wished he could play with them all day. And I said he could play with them all day if he gave me ten bucks an hour and he laughed and said he would gladly do that if he could. Then he had me put my right foot on his knee and then he began to take pictures of it and he moved it around in different positions and kept taking pictures. Then he did that to my left foot too and then he had me lay on my back and put my feet in the air and then took all sorts of pictures that way. Then he asked me if I had ever sucked my toes and I laughed and said “when I was a baby” and then he said “I’ll give you ten more dollars if you suck your toes for me.” I laughed and said “sure but before you do that you need to give me both of the ten dollars.” The man laughed and took his wallet out of his back pocket and pulled out a twenty dollar bill and gave it to me and I stuck it in the waistband of my swimsuit. Then I started sucking my toes and the man took pictures of that and it was really funny and I wondered why the shoe company wanted pictures of me sucking on my toes. When the man was done with those pictures he said he was done with taking pictures but he would give me five dollars if I let him suck on my toes for just a little bit. I said “no but for ten more bucks I will” so the guy took out his wallet again and gave me a ten dollar bill and I stuck that in my swimsuit too. Then he had me sit on the little seat in the shower and he lifted up my left foot and started sucking on my toes. It tickled a lot more when he did it because he had a small mustache and I laughed and was squirming around and he looked up at me. Then he sucked on my right foot toes and it tickled again and I laughed again and soon he stopped and said he was done and said “thank you for helping me with my work” and I said “thanks for the money” and then he opened the shower door a crack looked out and then left and then I went back out to the pool and Kyle and his mom were back and she got mad at me for leaving and I said that I was just in the bathroom and she said “tell me next time.” I said “okay” and then thought about what I could buy with ten plus ten plus ten equals thirty dollars.
He Speaks
Bridgett Colling
He speaks little but says much. Forcing me to decipher his sentences and similes, Picking apart the places between vowels and articles, Like reading the Gospel in high school, when finding the meaning in a parable. Like how, when you said oil lamps you really meant repentence Like how, when you said seeds you really meant fruits which really meant talents Like how, when we were sitting in your bed and I said “move over” you thought I said “I love you” And you gazed at me with a little confusion and so much hope And I just looked you in the eye, shook my head and said “No.” We touch each other only with smoke in our lungs or alcohol in our blood, only to awake and remember but not speak, on principle, of the way that it felt when our hands brushed against one another. You say so many things you don’t mean And you mean so many things you don’t say, Like how, ”I thought you were at his house.” means, “I’m glad you’re here with me.” And how, “It’s good that you decided to stay with him.” means, “We might have been together otherwise.” Like reading the Old Testament in Sunday school, And how killing your son meant obedience, And how post-genocide rainbows meant forgiveness, And how when the boy behind me pulled my hair it meant he wanted to kiss me.
Blonde Edna Won’t Serve Catholics
Maggie Jackson
That big ol’ house was built like a church of skin— all hard wood and stained glass kissin teased up hair like haloes on saints. Got pilgrims lined up out the door and down the stairs wantin a miracle to rise with the layin on of hands, the Spirit thrustin through them in a confessional—or a crib. Take this body, all of you, and consume— ain’t nothin closer to Jesus than a whore just plyin her trade. Whole city filled with Irish who got more kids’n they can feed can’t afford to be faithful in bed like they are at Mass. That Edna coulda made more money’n God Himself must have, if she’da jus opened up them doors when the Papists came a’knockin. Coulda covered that whole house in gold like a tabernacle holdin somethin more satisfying than just Christ’s puny little cracker of a body. But a woman’s gotta have standards— can’t be takin the money of men who pray to virgins.