L I T E R A L I N E S Volume II Spring 1995 STAFF Editor Jon Eric Johnson Editorial Board Susan _Brand, Poetry Editor Katie G. Carman, Fiction Editor Shelley Smith Law, Production Editor L. Keith Loyd, Public Relations Editor Teresa Mullins, Administrative Assistant Julie De Vine Phillips, Editorial Assistant Sonda Marie Schmidt, Art/Photography Editor Faculty Advisor Robin L. Kares Seated left to right: Jon Eric Johnson, Robin L. Kares, L. Keith Loyd. Standing left to right: Sonda Marie Schmidt, Shelley Smith Law, Susan Brand. Teresa Mullins, Julie DeVine Phillips, Katie G. Carman Literalines, Lhc IUPU Columbus Magazine of the Arts, is published in the spring of each year. Copyright 1995. IUPU Columbus, first serial rights reserved. Cover Art: "Candles and Memories" by John Shepard _/ Dennis Fogle Photo: Before the Storm: Laura Mershon Destination OZ: ..... 4 all night diner . 17 L. Keith Loyd Jerry Glascock A Cycle .......... 5 Dark Horizon . 17 Katie G. Cannan John Shepard The Writing Place .......... 6 Drawing: Flowers 117 . 18 Marge Bruns Teresa L. Mullins Photo: Green Mansions ....... 7 Paradise Regained . 19 Susan Brand Carol Walp Metamorphosis . 8 The Empty Chair ..... 20 Susan Brand Dianne Wiemers lfyman Umbrellas . : ........... 8 The Celebration . 21 Laura Mershon Christy Hubbard On Stage with Milosz ........ 9 Snowbird .... .... 22 Sonda Marie Schmidt Dianne Wiemers Wyman Photo: Focal Point . ..... 10 The Recital . 23 Dianne Wiemers Wyman Dennis Fogle The Big Score . 11 Photo: Silent Crucifix . 24 Marge Bruns Jon Eric Johnson Photo: Standing Alone . 13 Deathsong for Ajamu Nassor . 25 Rex Apsley Laura Mershon The Ride . ........... 14 Evening .... ...... 26 Marge Bruns Sonda Marie Schmidt Photo: The Reading Place . 15 Photo: Daylight's Demise . 27 Katie G. Carman Carol Walp Collector . 16 Hunting the Wild Turkey . 28 2 LITERALINES Sonda Marie Schmidt Julie De Vine Phillips Photo: The Last Stop . ....... 29 Baseball 1995 . 38 Dianne Wiemers Wyman Dennis Fogle The Hunt ....... ...... 30 Photo: Time Machine ......... 40 Sonda Marie Schmidt Susan Brand Photo: Meandering . ........ 32 Obscure Expectations . 41 Alix McKenzie Krash Sonda Marie Schmidt The Wind . ......... 33 Poet's Plight . 42 Jon Eric Johnson Jon Eric Johnson Mailbox . ........... 34 Birdsongs . 43 Susan Brand Marge Bruns Winter .... ............ 34 Photo: Antique Passage ........ 44 Jon Eric Johnson Photo: Bovinology: Manifestations of Bovine Propinquity as Exhibited Steve Mitchell in Pastoral Settings . 35 And in this Corner . 45 Greg Laman Contributors Dear Dad .. ............. 36 Biographical Notes ......... 47-48 Laura Mershon Another Revolution . 37 Acknowledgements The Literalines staff gratefully acknowledges the ongoing support and encouragement of the IUPU Columbus faculty and administration, especially that of Campus Director, Dr. Paul Bippen. Additional thanks go out to Tom Vujovich of Pentzer Printing for his patient and helpful advice, technical assistance and another job well done. * * * Statement of Policy and Purpose The Literalines editorial board accepts original works of fiction, poetry, black and white photography and line drawings from students throughout the academic school year. Each submission is reviewed by the entire board anonymously and judged solely on the basis of artistic merit and the standards set forth in the Guidelines, a copy of which is available upon request. SPRING 1995 3 Before The Storm: Destination OZ Dennis Fogle ·­ 4 LITERALINES A Cycle Waiting with anticipation becoming with love and labor. Actually happening, then joy with anxiety. The season is over....It is over. Becoming strong with energy warming with life and promise. To development full, then clouds on the horizon .. The season is over....It is over. Waning light with accounting harvesting the results. Cold, yet some comfort, then accomplishments done. The season is over.... It is done. L. Kei.th Loyd SPRING 1995 5 THE WRITING PLACE There really was something under there. Tommy graveyard-dark voice. "But you'll have to come back. knew something was there. The wooden stairs leading And when you do, I'll get you." The light came back from the cellar always scared him. He and his parents on. The boy raced up the stairs, not even allowing had moved to the old house at the end of Harbor Lane himself to catch his breath, and banged open the cellar three months ago, and he had the only upstairs bedroom door. For a second, he could swear that something in the red brick masterpiece of a house. He had brushed against his ankle. considered himself very lucky to have his own room now His father, a subdued businessman in his late forties, that his older brother had moved away, waiting for drove him to Natlian's apartment. Before Tommy could college to begin. Now Tommy was not so sure that he get out of the car, Ralph Sullivan decided to have a talk liked having his brother so far away. His mother, Meg with his youngest son about his wife. Things were getting Sullivan, allowed him to arrange his things in diis new out of hand. She did not seem to like tlie children, and room all by himself. Almost. He was not allowed to she did not seem to love him anymore. keep his most prized possession, his writing supplies, with "What I mean is, Mommy may not be around much him in his room upstairs. Although he was only thirteen, longer. She wants to get a new life. It's not to hurt you, he was destined to write horror stories. Of course, that and it's not your fault. She just doesn't want to stay with was not the kind of profession that a mother would want us any longer. I hope you understand." for her son. Meg always thought he should be a doctor, Tommy said that he did, and that he was sort'of like his grandfather. She would only let him write and expecting something like that to happen. Tommy really keep his writing supplies in the cellar. No one could see did understand about his mother. Neither he nor the violent, gruesome stories that the boy diought up. It Nathan was ever very close to her. Mr. Sullivan's rusty was then that the boy found the thing under die stairs. brown station wagon rumbled away. At first, he thought that it was only his wild That night, Nathan read his younger brother's stories imagination. The whispering. The footsteps. The and loved them. When Tommy awoke screaming and calling. Tommy persisted in writing his stories down found Nathan next to him, he explained what was there, but every night he had nightmares about what happening and what he had to go home to. Nathan could be making those noises; he tried to explain to his wanted to believe him, but how could he? It was crazy. mother why he kept waking up in the middle of the night Instead, he just sat with his litde brother until he could screaming, but she thought it was just a childish game to fall asleep again. get her to let him write upstairs. It would not work. "You want some orange juice or something?" Finally, after eight days of hearing her youngest son Nathan asked. screaming in bed, Meg sent him to his brother's "Yeah, sure," the shaking boy said, accepting the apartment on die coast. The boy did not object. His juice and toast that was put in front of him. After a brother, Nathan, liked his stories. while, he asked, "What am I supposed to do now?" His The morning of his trip to the coast, Tommy decided little boy voice choked back a sob. to bring some of his newest stories to his brother, but Nathan thought it over before saying anything. that meant that he would have to go downstairs to get "We'll go back tonight and get your writing stuff. them. He had not been down there in three days. Nothing will happen. Besides, if Mom is gone, you can Gulping down the lump in his throat that seemed to be write in your room. If she's not, then you can stay here his pulsing heart, he ran down the creaky, wooden stairs. with me, at least until school starts. Nathan was having Nothing got him. trouble deciding what to really believe, but Tommy was Once in the single, soft-white bulb lit room, Tommy his little brother, and he would do anything for him. felt a little safer. He unlocked his filing cabinet with a The boys arrived at the end of Harbor Lane at eight key that he kept on a chain around his neck, started to o'clock that night. Police cars blocked their driveway, go through the many stories. He found what he thought while flashing lights lit their path. They burst into the were the five best stories he'd written since his brother house to find their father crying at the kitchen table, too left, and he packed the stories in a folder carrying case hysterical to get a reasonable answer from. Seconds that he'd bought with his allowance against his mother's later, the police carried a stretcher from the cellar. A wishes. Task complete, he had to ascend the stairs. limp, pale hand fell from the cover. It was Meg Package in hand, he held his head up to the cement Sullivan's red tipped fingernails and gold wedding band ceiling, making sure not to look at the slits between the that gleamed from under the blood-soaked sheet. stairs. If he did not see it, it could not get him, or so he Nathan asked the policeman what had happened. believed. The policeman told him that Mr. Sullivan had decided to Halfway up, the light went off, and Tommy froze, in stay at a friend's house when he and his wife were having total darkness.