word~river Publications (ENG) Spring 2013 word~river literary review (2013) Ross Talarico Palomar College, [email protected] Anne Stark Utah State University, [email protected] Susan Evans East Tennessee State University, [email protected] Gary Pullman University of Nevada, Las Vegas; College of Southern Nevada, [email protected] Andrew Madigan Al Ain City College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/word_river Part of the American Literature Commons, Creative Writing Commons, and the Literature in English, NorSeeth next America page forCommons additional authors Recommended Citation Talarico, Ross; Stark, Anne; Evans, Susan; Pullman, Gary; Madigan, Andrew; Taylor, Christin; Melancon, Jerome; Evenson, Jennie; Mansour, Judith; DiDomenico, Mary; Lampman, Annie; Foster, Maureen; Montgomery, M. V.; Johnson, Rowan; Hanley, James; Brantley, Michael K.; Rexroat, Brooks P.; Stark, Deborah; Johnson, Rachel Rinehart; Crooks, Joan; Navicky, Jefferson; Higgins, Ed; Bezemek, Mike; Fields- Carey, Leatha; and Winfield, Maria, "word~river literary review (2013)" (2013). word~river. 5. https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/word_river/5 This Book is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Scholarship@UNLV with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Book in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself. This Book has been accepted for inclusion in word~river by an authorized administrator of Digital Scholarship@UNLV. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Authors Ross Talarico, Anne Stark, Susan Evans, Gary Pullman, Andrew Madigan, Christin Taylor, Jerome Melancon, Jennie Evenson, Judith Mansour, Mary DiDomenico, Annie Lampman, Maureen Foster, M. V. Montgomery, Rowan Johnson, James Hanley, Michael K. Brantley, Brooks P. Rexroat, Deborah Stark, Rachel Rinehart Johnson, Joan Crooks, Jefferson Navicky, Ed Higgins, Mike Bezemek, Leatha Fields- Carey, and Maria Winfield This book is available at Digital Scholarship@UNLV: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/word_river/5 word river literary review spring 2011 literary review~Spring 2013 Robin Grove is a recent graduate of Barstow Community College with an AA in Social Science and is currently an undergraduate at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas majoring in Psychology. She has had a passion for photography most of her life. This photo was taken in Helendale, California in a small community called Silver Lakes. word~river literary review Publication of University of Nevada, Las Vegas Department of English word~river literary review Volume 5: Issue 1 Managing Editor: Rebecca Colbert Contributing Editor: Susan Summers Nonfiction Editor: Sandra Hooven Fiction Editor: Rebecca Colbert Layout and Cover Design Editor: Andrew Bahlmann wordriver literary review is a publication of the University of Nevada Las Vegas Department of English. One issue each year is published in the spring. Copies are available for $10.00 (see the order form at the back of each issue). Submissions will be accepted year round for publication each spring issue (see submission guidelines at the back of each issue or online at http://wordriverreview.unlv.edu). The views expressed within the pages of wordriver literary review are not necessarily those of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or its Department of English. The University and the English Department seek only to provide a venue for the publication of creative works by part-time, adjunct, and full- time contract instructors currently working in university, college, and community college systems worldwide. Contact information: Susan Summers English Department University of Nevada Las Vegas PO Box 5011 4505 Maryland Parkway Las Vegas, Nevada 89154-5011 Phone: 702-895-4662 E-mail: [email protected] Rebecca Colbert University of Nevada Las Vegas P.O. Box 5011 4505 Maryland Parkway Las Vegas, Nevada 89154-5011 E-mail: [email protected] © 2013 University of Nevada, Las Vegas Department of English All rights reserved ISSN 1947-4881 wordriver literary review 1 Table of Contents Editor’s Note 4 Acceptance 5 Confessions 6 Four Acts of Disappearance 8 Last Time I Was Happy 11 Statistics Class 12 Even the seagulls are defeated in flight 17 The light from some invisible sun tilts the clouds over 18 Bedtime Story 19 The Classics 25 Route 66 Sunrise 42 Darlings of Lisboa 43 Evil Faux-Buddhists 53 Outside Watching 54 Imprints 63 Rites 64 A Muslim in Suburbia 65 Promised 71 A Reasonable Request 73 First Breath, Last Breath 78 Ben’s Poem 82 My Sister 84 the twirling bride on the beach 91 transit of venus 94 thus spake the prophet before her descent into the subway 95 horror vacui 96 Dream Jobs 97 Pathetic Thing 101 Nasif 102 The Haircut 104 The Peanut Butter Table 107 Stealing Santa 113 Legacy 120 Women of My Childhood 124 A Cobalt Blue 143 Homeless-Type Taps On the Door 145 Higher Education 147 Normal’s North 149 Strange Attractions 151 To and From the Auction 153 Barbecue with Kent 157 The Ways of Growth 163 After Li Bo 172 2 Crayola Dreams 173 Exquisite Dove 175 Geology and the English Language 182 This is My Vanishing Point 185 Red and White 186 Basilica del Cobre 189 Memories Sometimes 190 Not a Love Poem 191 Valediction 192 Mother, I Remember 195 Notes on Staff 196 Notes on Readers 196 Notes on Contributors 197 Submission Guidelines 203 wordriver Order Form 205 wordriver literary review 3 Editor’s Note The best part of publishing the Wordriver Literary Journal each year is soliciting submissions for the next volume. We look forward to reading new works from familiar authors and are excited to discover new voices from authors who work down the hall or across the ocean. Volume Five offers several of both. I am beyond pleased to present works from writers in disciplines outside of English Literature as well as international authors. The topics and themes in this volume speak to wide horizons and the myriad of ways we find a place to call home. From the poetry of Susan Evans which was inspired by her volunteer vacation at the Isle of Mull in Scotland to Jennie Evenson’s “A Muslim in Suburbia,” you will wonder at the many ways to find home. Is home the familiar, like “Barbecue with Kent” or is it family, like “Women of My Childhood” and “Bedtime Story”? Or does home become a place you can no longer return, a piece of music you cannot forget, the touch of a baby’s hand, a sister’s laugh, a foreign cousin or an empty beach? I hope you will find a home here with us. Our goal at Wordriver has always been to offer a forum for your voices and we continue to welcome you around our table. As always, we wish to thank Dr. Christopher C. Hudgins, Dean of Liberal Arts, and Dr. Richard Harp, Chair of UNLV’s Department of English for their continued indulgence and support of the journal. With Volume Five, we would like to add a special thanks to Professor Douglas Unger for encouraging the original vision of this journal with his belief in the valuable contributions of adjunct faculty. Many early morning emails and Sunday conversations between Susan Summers and Sandy Hooven keep Wordriver thriving. Finally, a big thanks is due to Andrew Bahlmann, recent Ph.D. graduate and Copy Editor at large for format and presentation. Look for us at http://wordriverreview.unlv.edu We hope you enjoy Volume Five. Rebecca Colbert, Managing Editor Spring 2013 4 Ross Talarico Acceptance Come, walk with me... As we have done or have meant to do where our own words again echo along the vast margins of diaries, where half-uttered desires might just as well have been crossword puzzles, you looking patiently at the blank affection on my face. We’ve come a long way to end up here, across from each other at a kitchen table made from some overgrown oak that inhaled, calmly, beautifully, the earth that surrounds us. I try to pronounce the word love, but I cough instead, something deep and telling, the moment that gives silence its due respect. Come, walk... Here we are, as close as two people can be, living a few scant miles from the place of dreams, leaning on the rusted fence at the border of life’s unfathomable dispute between love and desolation. wordriver literary review 5 Ross Talarico Confessions There is a blessing of sorts regarding our popular culture in the fact that the police don’t browse literary magazines to solve old crimes that have not only grown cold, but that have been celebrated in the quiet rectitude of poetry. Myself, I’ve discovered a few thefts. a couple of rapes, some awe-inspiring assaults on human frailty. taunting of the elderly in back-alleys caught munching on universal scraps… How many young were molested under the sad twilight shadows of willows leaving fingerprints on the flesh of romantic lingerings? How many times has a breath exhaled at the end of a line, a pause, caesura, ellipsis, a mystery where the murderer himself totters between self-loathing and prayer? I lean my elbows over the wood fence overlooking the grove in my backyard. A few avocado trees still stand amidst the piles of dead wood scattered about. No fruit in five years now; the old tractor mower, useless, rusted, sits on the rutted earth and in the faded photograph of the mid I sense that old inspiration of a rustic eternity. I’ve buried things here… Below the oldest tree, a pet cat, the remains of a peacock who settled in, from nowhere, for almost a year before falling prey to a coyote at dusk, and several chicks and ducks caught in the sleek jaws of a bobcat.