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Georgia Southern University Digital Commons@Georgia Southern Calliope Writing and Linguistics, Department of 2007 Calliope Armstrong Atlantic State University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/calliope Part of the Art and Design Commons, Creative Writing Commons, and the Photography Commons This magazine is brought to you for free and open access by the Writing and Linguistics, Department of at Digital Commons@Georgia Southern. It has been accepted for inclusion in Calliope by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons@Georgia Southern. For more information, please contact [email protected]. J alliope 2007 Armstrong Atlantic State University Volume XXIII taff Editor Stephanie Roberts Art Editor Allison Walden Poetry and Fiction Staff Erin Christian Britney Compton Emily Mixon Joe O'Connor Art Staff Amanda Altenauer Tyler Jordan Faculty Advisor Dr. Christopher Baker Calliope is published annually by and for the students of Armstrong Atlantic State University. The Student Government Association of AASU provides funding for each publication. Student submissions are collected dirough the fall semester for the following year's publication. All submissions are read and chosen through an anony- mous process to ensure equal opportunity for every entrant. The Lillian Spencer Awards are presented for outstandmg submissions in fiction, poetry and art. The recipients of this award are chosen by the staff from the student submissions received that year. Calliope 2007 submission guidelines: Regardless of medium, each entrant is limited to five submissions. Each entry must have a completed submission form. To ensure anonymity during the selection process, the Calliope staff asks that you not include your name or any identification on your submitted work. If submitting large art pieces, please attach a removable index card with your information on the back of your work. For more information, or if interested in working on the 2008 Calliope staff, please contact Dr. Christopher Baker in the Languages, Literature and Philosophy department located m Gamble Hall. ontents Fiction Randall Dave Williams 6 Facing the Beast Mandy Rowe 13 Breaching the Gaps Victoria Miller 16 Resistance Virginia Gribben 28 Baby Doll Leah DiNatale 31 Die Gurke Joe O'Connor 40 Ode to the Help Desk Michelle Crabb 48 Toms Wigs Jie Chen 58 Gretel Chris Bruchette 65 For Better orfor Worse Erin Christian 69 First to Burn, Then to Freeze Stephanie Roberts 79 Queen Wasp Virginia Gribben 91 Fear Stocking Alex Sandoval The of J. 99 Poetry Pseudonym Jessica Martinez 11 Mother Nature s Garden Elena Fodera 26 His Protest Jessica Martinez 38 Warsaw, 1943 Kevin Daiss 56 Fireflies HaiDang 67 My Gramma's Kitchen Kelly Arno 89 Salt Jessica Martinez 103 Mirror Elena Fodera 105 Dagny Mia Montgomery 5 Geometrical Ma%e Chad Roberts 12 Altar Anita Brunner 14 Wood You Water Me Greg Ferrell 15 Lunar Moth Luciana Carneiro 27 Meagons Hill Greg Ferrell 29 The Runny Who Gave up Life Anita Brunner 30 Untitled Luciana Carneiro 37 Solitude Greg Fe rrell 39 Classical Martini Chad Roberts 47 al-Maghribij/yah 2 Jeremy Windus 57 Blues Guitar in Red Luciana Carneiro 64 light Jennifer Henderson 68 Stuck in a Box Series Mia Montgomery 76 Dead Tree on Jekyll Chris McCormick 88 Thanksgiving Luciana Carneiro 90 Overlooking the Peloponnese Chris McCormick 98 Still Life Anita Brunner 101 Self Portrait Anita Brunner 102 World Jie Chen 104 Contributors 106 Dagny Chalk Pastel Zvlia Montgomery Lillian Spencer Award Winner for Art Calliope 5 Randall Dave Williams Lillian Spencer Award Winner for Short Fiction and Randall, we is real good friends. I guess that we been friends since Mewe could barely walk. Both of us grew up off Highway 25. Takes about twenty minutes to walk to his front door and I been making that walk all of my life. When you grow up out in the country, you pretty much latch on to whoever is around. I always known he was a litde crazy, but I guess that's 'cause his daddy ain't right. I once saw his daddy shoot one of Bill Johnson's cows in the face with an AK-47 just to do it. Mama says that he sells drugs, but it sure don't seem like it. Seems like they is way too poor to sell drugs. Drug dealers on T.V. drive Bendeys and Mercedes. Randall's daddy drives an old beat up El Camino covered in rust. He used to drive a dune buggy. Randall stays pretty7 quiet around other people, but when it's just the two of us he won't shut up. He's always going on and on 'bout hunting and Iron Maiden and stuff. Kids we go to school with don't really care bout that stuff. I suppose some of 'em like hunting but not the way we do it. They hunt deer. Them kids in high school don't always treat us so nice neither. We pretty much keep to ourselves. We used to eat lunch out in the parking lot with the rednecks until Keith Quarrels punched me in the chest. Those boys live in the mill village and they treat us like trash, so Randall and I decided to start eating in the cafeteria with the blacks and the preps. We'd sit by ourselves near the trash cans. That's where Randall loved to sit cause he could stare at Suzi Owens. She sat right in the middle of the preps, and Randall would just stare at her all throughout lunch. I'd try to talk to him about Stone Cold Steve Austin and guns and stuff, but he just kept talking bout Suzi. "What do you think her pussy tastes like?" he'd ask. "I don't know man. What's wrong with you?" He would just stare at her legs as we ate. "Bet it tastes like muscodines. Bet she uses so many lotions and keeps it so clean and stuff that it tastes like sweet sweet fruit." I had never tasted no girl before. Randall said that he'd had a bunch of girls, but the only girl I ever remember him spending time with was his cousin Chandi and she was just now thirteen. Chandi lost her arm when it got infected. It looked real gross at first. Now it's just a nub. Randall had found himself obsessed. I'd had a crush on a girl here and there growing up, like Carmen Electra or Chandi, but this was getting out of hand. Me and Randall would still hang out, but he wanted to do all kinds of freaky things. He tried to convince me to drive him over to Suzi's house on my four wheeler at midnight so he could go through their trash. He had himself convinced that if he could find some panties or a tampon or something that he could cast a spell over her. Like, he wanted to start a fire and listen to some Slayer and chant and all that. He was getting all kinds of perverted. I guessed that was 'cause his daddy wasn't right. I wasn't quite sure that Randall's daddy was selling drugs, but I figured he must have used them. He was up 'til all hours cleaning his guns and yelling at Randall. I found lots of them little flowers that you can get at the gas station all over their house. One 6 Calliope time when mv Mama was real sad about my stepdaddy hitting her and all, I brought her one of them flowers on the way home from school. When I gave it to her she explained to me that drug smokers used them little glass pipes that the flowers came in to smoke their drugs. I guess they must make a pretty good pipe. People can be real sneaky like that. It was a Monday when Principal Wheeler announced over the loud speaker that Suzi had died. Kids was crying in the halls and stuff I didn't really know her real well. She never talked to me or even looked my way. I could just imagine Randall crying his eves out like a little babv and everybody wondering what was up. Suzi never talked to him neither. She was a cheerleader. She lived in a neighborhood with a gate. They build them gates to keep people like Randall out. I guess to keep Randall out of their trash. Suzi's daddv had been drinking and he ran a stop sign near the mall. He drove one of them big SUYs, but it didn't help 'em none when it flipped. He was a city council- man or something. Maybe he was a dentist. Tliey said that Suzi had died on impact. That made everybody feel better that she didn't have to suffer or nothing. People was saying that Suzi's daddy loved to drink. I thought everybody's daddy loved to dunk. They was planning on letting school out early for her funeral. They said that half the town was going to be there. I was gonna stay home and try to wr atch them dirty channels on the satellite that my stepdaddy kept locked. I knew that if I was alone for a while that I could figure out the code. When I ran mto Randall after shop class, I was pretty sure that he would be sad. Randall wasn't much for crying, but I expected him to seem depressed or something. He didn't seem like it had bothered him at all. In fact, he seemed pretty normal. That day we didn't sit in the cafeteria at lunch.