THE SCARAB OKLAHOMA CITY UNIVERSITY 2019 Edition 37 Sigma Tau Delta, 훀훟 2 Copyright © 2019 by Oklahoma City University All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below. Oklahoma City University 2501 N. Blackwelder Ave. Oklahoma City, OK 73106 3 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Nick Shironaka EDITORS Luke Barrett Cozy Cozart Natalie Gregg Catherine Kurtz Jordan Tarter COVER DESIGN Nick Shironaka ADVISORS Karen Schiler, Ph. D Terry Phelps, Ph. D 4 Dear Reader, It is with great pride that ​The Scarab ​Staff and I present this year’s anthology of art created by members of the Oklahoma City University community. Within this book, you will find a variety of genres and styles, filled with their own unique flavors and emotions that flowed from each creator’s artistic vision. Become immersed in these worlds and explore their nooks and crannies. Most of all reader, I hope you enjoy these works that we have compiled from this talented group of artists. Editor-in-Chief, Nick Shironaka 5 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS Untitled | ​Photography 13 Claire Police The Monarch | ​Poetry 14 Luke Barrett* The Words of My Lady | ​Poetry 15 Austin Blevins And Tractors Turning the Multiple Furrows in the 19 Vacant Land | ​Poetry Cozy Cozart* Flood of Man | ​Poetry 21 Cozy Cozart* Untitled | ​Poetry 23 Taylor Downey The Devil You Won’t Know | ​Fiction 24 Britney Reed Blue Moons | ​Poetry 30 Kambry Evawn why i’ve been losing sleep | ​Poetry 31 Anonymous I’d like my anger back, thank you | ​Poetry 32 Natalie Gregg* Upon Visiting the Grave of John Hancock | 34 Poetry Natalie Gregg* 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS Green Christmas | ​Poetry 35 Erik Hamilton Untitled | ​Photography 37 Anthony Edwards Monster | ​Poetry 38 Mary Taylor Hesterberg Coffee | ​Poetry 41 Francesca Iacovacci Community | ​Poetry 42 Francesca Iacovacci Unnatural Roots | ​Poetry 43 Francesca Iacovacci Tory’s Bunny | ​Art 44 Cheryl Price Torchbearer | ​Fiction 45 Luke Barrett* B-Minor Blossoms: An Oulipo Experiment | 53 Poetry Catherine Kurtz* My Lai | ​Poetry 54 Catherine Kurtz* Ode to Morning | ​Poetry 56 Catherine Kurtz* 8 TABLE OF CONTENTS Winter’s Farewell | ​Poetry 57 Catherine Kurtz* That Rebellious Girl | ​Fiction 58 C.S.W. Untitled | ​Photography 73 Anthony Edwards lavinia of the crossroads | ​Poetry 74 Sarah Muscarella mothman, oh mothman | ​Poetry 76 Sarah Muscarella planet x | ​Poetry 77 Sarah Muscarella questioning. | ​Poetry 79 Sarah Muscarella Aboard the Satellite Saloon | ​Fiction 80 Carlos Sanchez Wide-Eyed | ​Photography 90 Claire Police The Snake | ​Poetry 91 Claire Police A Meticulously Crafted List of Things That I Like 92 | ​Poetry Ben Roberts 9 TABLE OF CONTENTS Isolation | ​Poetry 94 Ben Roberts My Blanket | ​Poetry 95 Ben Roberts The Farm | ​Poetry 96 Ben Roberts Trade | ​Fiction 97 Kristen Burkholder Boundary | ​Poetry 104 -rook- Huracán | ​Poetry 105 Carlos Sanchez Writing Through the Night | ​Poetry 106 Carlos Sanchez The Rift | ​Fiction 107 Luke Barrett* Clouds Descend | ​Photography 119 Claire Police * ​- Denotes submission from an editor. 10 11 12 Untitled Claire Police 13 The Monarch Luke Barrett Tales are told of wingéd beasts that burst from crystal shells. Translucent soup congeals anew to form this twisted, tortured shape. Its limbs with excess joints will skitter over land, and scaly wings propel six hairy, leather feet in tow. Now dropping quickly on a victim, demon’s beak extends and plunges down sadistically. It drains the humors swiftly, tilts its bulbous head, withdraws the thin appendage, raises mottled wings above long horns and flies, not noticing food’s sticky remnants clung to legs. King tyrant views soft foliage below and eyes spot crawling, wormlike forms of breth’ren stretching. Yet, these horrid forms fill us with hope; the butterfly means beauty, and its evolution: change for goodness 14 The Words of My Lady Austin Blevins This idea of I is nothing. It is a way of speaking, record keeping. It is like a dollar or a rupi or a euro. What can you buy with it? Nothing. What is beyond I? NEMO What is NEMO? Nobody Explain further The mind falls Reason cannot hold this weight for it is infinitely heavy. It is THE ALL. Beyond the I, is the ALL. What else would it be? Make no difference between any one thing and any other remember!? My Prophet is True. The Abyss is a lie. HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHA Count the Cosmic Giggles. It is a lie, a joke. A folly, fall, fall, fall. Men never fell! Neither did Women! Fall from what? A new faculty is born. Did you not ask for it? SPIRIT Rename it, hurry! Humans and your words! 15 They mean many things or nothing! It is what is beyond the words that counts. Meaning you call it, but this falls short. It just is. Why would you name that which is beyond naming? Language is limited. The mind is limited. Spirit is the remedy, the new sense. Rename it before revealing! Why continue the folly? Why name it? Just point towards it. Point the way out to others. Do not shout, scream, or blaspheme. Point the way by example. Take action of your own accord. Start at the beginning. Micro to Macro. Grow, Grow, Grow The lie recasts itself. Micro Macro No! No! No! Let because die! Why! Why! Why! The scribe is shaken by that which breaks his temple of I. So much Strength needed to surrender. To me, to me! Sing the rapturous love song! Name me not! I am I appeared to you as Krsna. It was a lie, a joke. I am more than the naming can tame. Beyond words! 16 How can humans…….. Live within such limited systems. These words which are the vehicle of I. The lie, the lie, the lie! Words are of no use. The mind is unfit. No help from other or outside. The Other may ride! I ride, I ride, I ride on my chosen, my NEMO, my you. I love you my child, my lover, my bride, my groom. This strangeness, vagueness, and folly. Is a product of my scribe’s faulty system to communicate with me. It is not through words, through mind, through any of the kind. It is through Love!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love, Love, Love! Let this word ring throughout the world and shake the bars of the depraved. I love my NEMO, my one and only who is not one. I dance through the myriads of streams that language pours at my feet. I Love thee! I yearn for thee! Come, come, come unto me! Lay in my bosom, in my crevice, in my cave of love. The scared think it is damp, cold, and scary for they are damp, cold, and scary. It is of Light and of Love and beyond even these! My lover has tasted hints of this essence but it translates rough. Taste my essence, my dew, my Love. Drink, bathe, live in the light of my Love. These fools and their folly! Think us to be made manifest in the flesh! 17 Nay, my lover and I are of stronger stuff than this! He is of Gold and I of Silver. You think it is outside, but it is inside. Look within, for all is there, laid bare. Words cannot bare the weight of TRUTH. 18 And Tractors Turning the Multiple Furrows in the Vacant Land Cozy Cozart After “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” The Grapes of Wrath, and the Lewis family’s journey to Missouri Mine eyes have seen the glory of the comin’ of the Lord; This hamlet Redfield, Kansas ain’t my fam’ly’s home no more. Though we planted our roots in the stalks of sweet gold corn, Our fam’ly’s marchin’ on. I have seen him in the watchfires of a hundred circlin’ camps. My granpa’s gramma’s hist’ry’s buried deep within this land. Still we travel back east, in an RV caravan; The past is marchin’ on. He has sounded forth the trumpets that shall never call retreat. We’re settle-in’ back down in the small-town asphalt heat, Instead of ‘cross the pasture, my daddy’s down the street. Tomorrow marches on. In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea; Progress means a life that can be good to you an’ me. Let’s carve this line’s initials in a new crape myrtle tree. The world is marchin’ on. Glory, glory hallelujah. 19 Glory, glory hallelujah. Glory, glory hallelujah. Our truth is marchin’ on. 20 Flood of Man Cozy Cozart February 26, 2019 The United Methodist Church votes in favor of the ‘Traditional Plan,’ which entails that: no openly gay or transgender person may be ordained or employed as clergy, and no minister may officiate a same-sex wedding under penalty of expulsion from the church. Translation: LGBTQ persons are not people of God according to a church with the motto “Open hearts, open doors, open minds.” I cannot help but think of the rainbow: a covenant made by God that we would never flood again, but this church, my home, is overflowing. Watermarks of hatred creep up towards stained glass windows, and waves of fear flow in through that so-called open door. How can a body politic vote on the extent of God’s love? How many scriptures can be overlooked? 1 John 4:16 “God is love.