Digital Commons @ Gardner-Webb University Volume 50 (2018)
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Gardner-Webb University Digital Commons @ Gardner-Webb University The Broad River Review Literary Societies and Publications 2018 Volume 50 (2018) C.V. Davis Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.gardner-webb.edu/brreview Part of the English Language and Literature Commons, Fiction Commons, Nonfiction Commons, and the Poetry Commons Recommended Citation Davis, C.V., "Volume 50 (2018)" (2018). The Broad River Review. 17. https://digitalcommons.gardner-webb.edu/brreview/17 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Literary Societies and Publications at Digital Commons @ Gardner-Webb University. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Broad River Review by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Gardner-Webb University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE BROAD RIVER REVIEW Volume 50 2018 The Literary Review of Gardner-Webb University Boiling Springs, North Carolina T HE B ROAD R IVER R EVIEW ASSOCIATE EDITORS Summer Byers Emily Eidson Anna Francis Aaron Hilton Hannah Roberts Christian Vaughan Kate Vriesema The Broad River Review is published annually by the Department of English Language and Literature at Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, North Carolina. Upon request, this publication can be provided in an alternate format by calling (704) 406-4414. Acknowledgements Cover Photo: “Blue Door” by Rollin Jewett, 2018 Ron Rash, “Watauga County: 1962” in Waking Ron Rash, “At Reid Hartley’s Junkyard” in Raising the Dead Estefania Acquaviva, “Calle La Rueda” in Typishly Olaf Kroneman, “Fighting to Heal” in The Intima Gary Beck, “Purchase Power II” in The Magnolia Review Broad River Review, v. 50, 2018 [email protected] www.broadriverreview.org CONTENTS EDITORS’ NOTE vi SPECIAL POETRY PRESENTATION Ron Rash, Watauga County: 1962 8 At Reid Hartley’s Junkyard 9 THE RASH AWARD IN FICTION Leslee Becker, Such Friends 10 THE RASH AWARD IN POETRY Patricia L. Hamilton, Puzzle 22 J. CALVIN KOONTS POETRY AWARD Mallory Moore, Lessons 24 Old Friend Comes to Visit 26 Hannah Ray, Sea Glass 27 Unrhymable Fruit 28 EDITORS’ PRIZE IN POETRY Summer Byers, In the Name of Victory 29 Aaron Hilton, System Failure 30 POETRY Cathy Allman, I Can’t Tell You Why 32 Eleanor Altman, How to Peel an Egg 34 Ashlyn Arend, Sonnet for an Equinox 35 Gary Beck, Purchase Power II 45 Trudi Benford, With Reckless Abandon 46 Tim Bleecker, Six to Nine 47 Creighton Blinn, In Hindsight 48 Ace Boggess, Did Someone Flip a Switch on the Reality Machine? 61 Jona Colson, Prayer 62 Scott Dockery, Down on the Floor 63 Hollie Dugas, The Secret Lives of Figs 64 Gary Galsworth, Early On 65 Eric Greinke, White Nights 76 Judith Grissmer, We Want to Believe 77 Megan Nemise Hall, Oral History 78 Carol Hamilton, Flemish Light 79 Alani Hicks-Bartlett, Confession 88 Robert W. Hill, Cwms and Swales, Dingles and Stars 90 Lowell Jaeger, Dinosaurs 92 Therin Johns, Natural Killer 93 Sharon Kennedy-Nolle, Civilian Conservation Corps 94 Lee Landau, Foreign Vocabulary 96 Richard Lebovitz, The Lost Family of Belz 103 John Linstrom, Ice Sheet Archive 104 Iris Litt, Early Stages 105 Gregory Lobas, This Is How I Find You 119 Sean Madden, The Jam Session 120 Sarah McCann, Children Playing at Hell 121 Kevin J. McDaniel, Gray Heron 130 Alex McIntosh, 10,000 Things 132 Sarah Merrow, Bricolage 133 Cameron Morse, Leaves of Ivy 142 Stephany L. Newberry-Davis, Daddy 143 Jeanne Obbard, Reindeer, Lightning 144 Luba Ostashevsky, Rituals Done to Us 145 Rosemary Peek, Drought 155 George Perreault, Chamisa 156 Barry Peters, Vermeer Construction 157 Diana Pinckney, Two Comedians, 1965 169 Phill Provance, Of Beauty & Things 170 Aparna Sanyal, Hopeful 172 Joyce Schmid, How My Father Got to Watch Me Grow Up 173 Laura Schulkind, The Workshop 177 Claire Scott, Unexcused Absence 178 Maureen Sherbondy, Transitions 179 Duncan Smith, New Ground 180 Kerri Vinson Snell, Brittle Creek 181 LeRoy Sorenson, The Tear Down 186 Matthew J. Spireng, Blame It on the Rain 188 Lisa St. John, Particle Song 189 Max Stephan, Truffles (Tuber Magnatum) 192 John Stupp, Joe Louis Runs the Voodoo Down 193 Jo Barbara Taylor, Sunday at Kokomo Federal Correctional Facility 194 Allen Tullos, Odd, Numbered Days 195 Bill Van Every, On Finding Animals in the Clouds 196 Sarah Weeks, Company 197 John Sibley Williams, No More Ocean 198 FICTION Estefania Acquaviva, Calle La Rueda 36 Heather Bell Adams, The Topaz Creek Fugitive 50 Christopher Allen, Interrupted 66 Nancy Brock, One Summer 80 Davis Enloe, Big Man to Little Man 106 D Ferrara, The Bookkeeper’s Bench 122 Kathleen Glassburn, Clover’s Latest Caper 134 Steve Lambert, A Song for Enid Pound 146 Catherine Moore, Until It Thunders 158 Ray Morrison, No One’s Ghost But My Own 174 Eric Rampson, Hazards 190 NONFICTION J.A. Bernstein, Morning Sun 31 Pamela S. Carter, Season’s End 98 Olaf Kroneman, Fighting to Heal 182 ARTWORK Rollin Jewett, Blue Door cover CONTRIBUTORS 199 EDITORS’ NOTE Gardner-Webb University has published a literary magazine continuously since 1968. Early issues appeared under the names titles The Green Scribe and One Little Candle, then a long run as Reflections, beginning in 1973. Finally, in 2002, we became the Broad River Review, when the magazine was also upgraded from side-staple to a perfect bound publication and increased its scope from local to regional/national. This year, the Broad River Review publishes its 50th Anniversary Issue. Each year, the Broad River Review publishes a number of contest winners and select finalists. The Rash Awards in Poetry and Fiction are named in honor of Ron Rash, a 1976 graduate of Gardner-Webb University. Rash’s first published poem, “Last Night Ride,” appeared in the pages of this literary review the year of his graduation. Since then, Rash has worked prodigiously to become a prize-winning writer and New York Times bestseller. We honor’s Rash’s work in this issue by reprinting two of our favorite Rash poems. The editors would like to thank Taylor Brown and Bill Brown, who served as judges for the Rash Awards in Fiction and Poetry, respectively. Taylor Brown selected “Such Friends” by Leslee Becker, of Fort Collins, Colorado, for the fiction award, while Bill Brown chose “Puzzle” by Patricia Hamilton, of Jackson, Tennessee, as winner of the poetry award. Congratulations to both winners, who received $500 each and publication in the 2018 issue. Taylor Brown said of Becker’s story: “‘Such Friends’ is a story of exceptional depth and guts, with a clear emotional center and characters who are eccentric, endearing, flawed, and most of all, alive. Like the best stories, I did not want this one to end.” Bill Brown commented on Hamilton’s poem: “‘Puzzle’ is an artistic, poetic sustained metaphor with a rich personal voice and detailed choices. A puzzle-working family has a quiet, introverted father suffering from deep post-war experiences. The poem ends with an emotioal outburst of the father’s grief that is the finishing piece of the family puzzle. This poem is a powerful reading experience.” Additionally, the J. Calvin Koonts Poetry Award is awarded to a senior English major or minor at Gardner-Webb University whose poetry is judged most outstanding by a committee of department members. Congratulations to seniors Mallory Moore and Hannah Ray for reciving this recognition. Gardner-Webb University students Summer Byers and Aaron Hilton also received our Editors’ Prize in Poetry for “In the Name of Victory” and “System Failure,” respectively. vi The Broad River Review would also like to thank every writer who submitted to us or entered our contests. A full list of honorable mentions and finalists can be found on our website, www.broadriverreview.org. Our next contest submission period will coincide with our regular submission period, which will be September 1–November 15, 2018. Full submission information and guidelines, including profiles of the judges, will appear on our web site in August. We also appreciate our subscribers and those who have donated to us. Finally, the editors offer sincere appreciation to the Department of English Language and Literature at Gardner-Webb University for its continued support. In addition, the editors would like to thank university administration for its sustained financial backing of a literary review. vii RON RASH Watauga County: 1962 Smell of honeysuckle bright as dew beads stringing lines on the writing spider’s silk page, night’s cool lingering, the sun awake but still lying down, its slant-light seeping through gaps of oak branches as the first blackberry pings the milk pail’s emptiness, begins the slow filling up, the plush feel of berry only yesterday a red-green knot before steeped in dark to deepest purple, and as dawn passes, the pail grows heavy, wearies my arm until I sit down inside that maze of briar I make my kingdom, lift to my mouth the sweet wine of blackberry my hands stained like royalty. 8 RON RASH At Reid Hartley’s Junkyard To enter we find the gap between barbed wire and briars, pass the German Shepherd chained to an axle, cross the ditch of oil black as a tar pit, my aunt compelled to come here on a Sunday after church, asking me when her husband refused to search this island reefed with past catastrophes. We make our way to the heart of the junkyard, cling of rust and beggarlice on our clothes, bumpers hot as a skillet as we squeeze between car husks to find in this forever stilled traffic one Ford pickup, tires stripped, radio yanked out, driver’s door open. My aunt gets in, stares through glass her son looked through the last time he knew the world, as though believing like others who come here she might see something to carry from this wreckage, as I will when I look past my aunt’s ruined Sunday dress, torn stockings, find her right foot pressed to the brake.