19th Annual Café Shapiro Shapiro Undergraduate Library February 8, 9, 15, & 16, 2016 Anthology of Selected Poems & Short Stories Café Shapiro 2016 Anthology ©2016 The authors retain all copyright interests in their respective works. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without permission of the authors. Please contact [email protected] for permission information. Original Artwork provided by: Tori Essex University of Michigan Major: Sophomore, Art and Design Major Image is titled “Capital I” - a cyanotype portrait created by exposing the material to sunlight using acetate overlays. The cover art also incorporates a second image, “Unidentified Motives” - an experimental watercolor piece, that has been digitally altered to be a black and white version. Published by Michigan Publishing Available online: http://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cafe Introduction Introduction Café Shapiro Welcome to Café Shapiro! Café Shapiro began in February 1998 as part of the University’s “Year of the Humanities and Arts” (YoHA). Originally conceived as a student coffee break, Café Shapiro takes place in the Shapiro Undergraduate Library during winter evenings in February. It features undergraduate student writers nominated by their professors, many of whom have also been nomi- nated for various writing prizes within the University and beyond. Students are invited to perform a live reading for a peer audience. For many student writers, Café Shapiro is a first opportunity to read publicly from their work. For others, it provides a fresh audience, and the ability to experience the work of students they may not encounter in writing classes. Through its nine- teen years of existence, Café Shapiro has evolved to become several nights of sharing among some of our best undergraduate writers, their friends, families, and the wider community. Café Shapiro has been popular, and in many years we have created an anthol- ogy to provide access to these students’ works after the live performance. It is exciting to see our mission being realized in this year’s printing of the 19th Annual Café Shapiro Anthology. We hope you enjoy reading the work of these talented writers. The University of Michigan Libraries Shapiro Undergraduate Library Learning and Teaching Ann Arbor, Michigan March 2016 3 Café Shapiro 2016 Anthology Contents Introduction 3 Alex Bernard My Weekend with Hepburn 8 Jordyn Bernstein Hourglass 12 Ashley Bishel September 19 Grace Bydalek In October 22 Julia Byers The Things I Leave Behind 28 Sabrina Deutsch Glass 33 Margot Draycott Rain, or Ammo, or The Toast is Burned 36 Untitled 37 Untitled 38 Untitled 39 Karen Duan BEFORE WE WERE TIGER WOMEN 40 Laura Dzubay Classic Role Models 52 She and Me 53 Betty Hill’s Dream on the Fifth Night 53 The Sickness 54 Four Attempts at Understanding Nature 54 For David Bowie 56 Tori Essex Chicago Bound 57 Sofia Fall Once I Was an Octopus Fisherman 63 Horticulture 64 Minor Ghosts 65 4 Contents Aaron Finglass The Taste of Texture 66 Gavin Gao Stray Cat 70 Our Lady 72 The Hyper Love Song of a Household Android 73 Blair Gould The Boy and the Man 74 Miranda Hency Doppelgänger 80 Enantiomers 81 Box Fan 82 Lindendeary Himawan Excerpt from the Truth about the Riots of ’98: Tawuran, “Magic Stone”, and More CIA Conspiracies 83 Grace Kim Untitled 89 Alex Kime grinch 98 when I was consecrated 98 accretion 99 nowhen 100 duende, a performance of what I can do to myself 101 writing what I need to means killing the son my parents thought they had 101 on having a witch head, a candle, a onesie from Studio Ghibli’s Totoro, a grotesque sculpture of a pig chef eating pasta, and half a pomegran- ate 102 Wilson Kung Untitled 103 Susan LaMoreaux Transcendence 118 Four Ways of Dreaming 120 Friendly Advice from the God of Love 122 Hannah Rowan Loveless We’re Not Cool 124 Mark Malakh Suburban Street Corners 132 5 Café Shapiro 2016 Anthology Katarina Merlini Passage; Four Microcosms 140 Bet Your Mind 141 Exiled: A Review 141 Nucleus 142 Emptiness, An Aspect of Death 143 Fade Into Self 144 Katie Miller Watermarks 145 San Pham Eating Oceans 154 Serenity Powers Owlman 172 Erinn Promo Lunar Lullaby 179 To Accept the Incomprehensible 180 Tell Me What You See 180 Stitches 181 Nervous Skin 181 Molly Reitman All The Time I’m Wasting 182 Cailean Robinson May 187 Ben Rosenstock Untitled 195 Lenny Shirase you cried a lot, and i cried a little 198 doors are stupid and maybe i am too 198 work in progress 199 stupid thoughts from the night before 199 Charlotte Stanbaugh New Life 201 Grahan Techler John Toledo In: “Sixth City Blues” 206 6 Contents Shana Toor shukran 217 if time was a straight line 218 Atma Hatya 220 Kate Velguth Witness 221 Claire Wood Me, Marie, and the Nameless Man 227 7 Café Shapiro 2016 Anthology Alex Bernard Senior Major: English and Political Science Alex Bernard is a frequent consumer of books, plays, and movies like There Will Be Blood (2007), a systematic, oft-chaotic deconstruction of capitalistic institutions as manifested in oilman Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis, Lin- coln, Gangs of New York). Plainview begins as a man with nothing and ends as a man with nothing. As the gap between the lower and upper class grows, what could be more poignant, more relevant, than the self-debilitation of the self-made man? Indeed, Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood is an achievement from the same school as Citizen Kane, The Godfather Part II, and, of course, von Stroheim’s Greed. 3.5/4. My Weekend with Hepburn Here’s what kind of happened. It was a Wednesday night. I was doing what I always do on Wednesday nights: sitting on my couch, sucking the skin on the back of my hand, think- ing about the banking crisis, when – “How do you do, Mister Beh-nard?” I gasped! Who had materialized in my room, but none other than Hollywood starlet and Four-Time Oscar Winner Katharine Hepburn! She was perched in my desk chair, legs crossed, head thrown back, a martini dangling from her 8 Alex Bernard fingernails real seductive like a snake teething a yo-yo. “What are you doing here, Katharine Hepburn?” I un-sucked my hand. “Shouldn’t you be in the Golden Age of Hollywood?” “Oh, Mister Beh-nard,” Katharine Hepburn said. “Who could ever be as astute as you? You’re hallucinating ... simple as that, Professor.” “Yeah ... ” “Besides, a girl can enjoy the view, can’t she?” “Hee-hee-hee ... ” For the next week, my hallucination of Katharine Hepburn and I did ev- erything together. She showed me Citizen Kane and The Philadelphia Story. I showed her Space Jam. In the evenings, we ate at Chophouse (on her) and South Quad (on me). Except, the thing is, no matter where we went, no matter how many times I told our waiter I’d be dining with a redheaded, sharp-tongued, film-icon- legend-lady, they never brought Katharine Hepburn any food! So I gave her some of my chicken tenders. At night, we waltzed on rooftops. I’d say she looked “really hot” and she’d tell me I was “incorrigible,” then I’d say that word was “really hot” and she’d say “thanks, doll” and I’d say “wel-come!” and she’d smirk and double back-flip off the roof, onto a horse, and I’d take the stairs. And yet despite it all, if you can believe it, Katharine Hepburn was super insecure, always calling herself a “damn fool,” a “silly little thing,” insisting she was unlovable, unfeeling, made of “bronze.” And I was all like, “What? You? Bronze? Aren’t pennies made from bronze? Wait, nah, that’s copper. Nevermind.” And then Katharine Hepburn would be all like, “I don’t expect you to understand.” And then I’d be all like, “Maybe, I don’t. Maybe I don’t understand. But, wow, look at you. I mean, Jesus. I’m so lucky. Your eyes are so real, I never saw eyes so real. I’d touch ‘em if it wouldn’t be so uncomfortable for you.” And then, she’d start crying, and I’d ask, “what is it?” and she’d say, “Shut up, keep talking,” so I would: “I’m no good with words. I’m no good ever, really. But you, you don’t make me feel like a bad person ... I love you. I knew it the minute I met you. I’m sorry it took so long for me to catch up. I just got stuck.” 9 Café Shapiro 2016 Anthology That last part was from Silver Linings Playbook, but Katharine Hepburn never saw it ‘cause she died in 2003 and everything, so she thought I was real romantic and would kiss me hard and drop her champagne on the car- pet, and I’d go to clean it up but she’d be all like, “Leave it, dah-ling. We’re wonderful. Hold me ... mmm.” And I would, tight and all that. And we’d sleep together, but never have sex because the sex was only implied. And then, one day, well ... how are the mighty fallen. One day, after buying Katharine Hepburn a frock (whatever that is) and after eating snow by the Union, I walked home, put my key in the door and heard something – “Oh, Cary, put me in your pocket.” I burst in and what I saw ... what I saw was ... In my bed, under my new comforter, was Katharine Hepburn kissing my hallucination of Hollywood star and Honorary Oscar Winner Cary Grant! “Cary Grant!” I said, dropping my package and such.