Little Rock, AR 72202 (Magazine Onlyprofile Not Included-62.35 Including Post:Ge)

DOCUMENT RESUME

ED 268 558 CS 209 703

AUTHOR Holbrook, Hilary Taylor, Comp. TITLE An Exemplary High School Literary Magazine: "Labyrinth." INSTITUTION ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, Ill. SPONS AGENCY Office of Educational Research and Improvement (ED), Washington, DC. PUB DATE [86] CONTRACT 400-83-0025 NOTE 56p.; Photographs may not reproduce well. For other magazine profiles in series, see CS 209 701-720. AVAILABLE FROMLittle Rock Central High School, 14th and Park Sts., Little Rock, AR 72202 (Magazine onlyprofile not included-62.35 including post:ge). PUB TYPE Reports - Descriptive (141)

EDRS PRICE NFO1 /PC03 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Competition; *Creative Writing; *Evaluation Methods; Faculty Advisers; High Schools; Periodicals; Production Techniques; Student Evaluation; *Student Publication; Teacher Role; Writing Evaluation; Writing for Publication IDENTIFIERS *Exemplars of Excellence; "Literary Magazines; National Council of Teachers of English

ABSTRACT One of a series of 20 literary magazine profiles written to help faculty advisors wishing to start or improve their publication, this ?rails provides information on staffing and production of "Labyrinth," the magazine published by Little Rock Central High School, Little Rock, Arkansas. The introduction describes the literary magazine contest (and criteria), which was sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English and from which the 20 magazines were chosen. The remainder of the profile- -based on telephone interviews with the advisor, the contest entry form, and the two judges' evaluation sheets--discusses (1) the magazine format, including paper and typestyles; (2) selection and qualiiicatiuns of the students on staff, as well as the role of the advisor in working with them; (3) methods used by staff for acquiring and evaluating student submissions; (4) sources of funding for the magazine, including fund raising activities if applicrble, and production costs; and (5) changes and problems occurring during the advisor's tenure, and anticipated changes. The 1984 issue of the magazine is appended. (HTH)

*********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * from the original document. *********************************************************************** OF INDUCATION US. INMANTMONT Or EDUCATION . NATIONAL INSTITUTE TIMM. RESOURCESINFORMATION ITltAE CENTER IERICI been reproduced as N. docurnsm Am received from the perenOf atomisation orionsbno It been node to improve Minor themes tove reproduction _w mod in this docu- porno of view or opinions ment do not neceeesdlY(*Present es* NIE posilOnmP0S0 LABYRINTH AN EXEMPLARY HIGHSCHOOL LITERARY MAGAZINE: Compiled by "PERMISSION TOREPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEENGRANTED BY Hilary Taylor Holbrook

RESOURCES TO THE EDUCATIONAL INFORMATION CENTER(ERIC)" INTRODUCTION E:Jg1.;sh began a In 1984, the NationalCouncil of Teachers of magazines from national competition torecognize student literary in the United senior high, juniorhigh, and middle schools Judges in the state States, Canada, and theVirgin Islands.

competitions for studentmagazines were appointedby state state level. leaders who coordinatedthe competition at the their The student magazines wererated on the basis of appropriateness of literary quality(imaginative use of language; flow of metaphor, symbol, imagery;precise word choice; rhythm,

language), types ofwriting included (poetry,fiction,

nonfiction, drama), qualityof editing andproofreading, artwork

and graphic design(layout, photography,illustrations, typography, paper stock, presswork), and frontmatter and credits). Up to pagination (title page,table of contents, staff themes, 10 points were alsoeither added for unifying considerations, or cross-curricular involvement,or other special subtracted in the case of alarge percentage ofoutside

professional and/or facultyinvolvement.

2 2

In the 1984 competition, 290literary magazines received ratings of "Above average," 304 wererated "Excellent," and 44 earned "Superior" ratings fromstate contest judges. On thebasis of a second judging, 20 of thesuperior magazines received the competition's "Highest Aw ft

As a special project, the ERICClearinghouse on Reading and

Communication Skills has selelted 20magazines from those receiving "Superior" ratings to serve asmodels for other schools wishing to start or improve their ownstudent literary magazines.

The profiles of these magazines arebased on the faculty advisor's contest entry sheet, thejudges' evaluation sheets, and interviews with the faculty advisors.Where possible, the magazines themselves have been appended.Information for ordering copies of the magazines is containedat the end of each profile.

. 3 3

LABYRINTH /84

Little Rock Central High School

Little Rock, Arkansas

Principal: Everett Hawks

1984 Faculty Advisor: Kay Fish

Current Advisor: Renee Graw

Student Editor: Caitlin Scott

Little Rock Central High School is athi ,e-year public school located in inner-city LittleRock, the largest of the city high schools. The school's 1,725 students comefrom a wide rangy of socioeconomic levels. Little lackCentral students have published a literary and arts magazine asLabyrinth since 1970 and as Writer's Rendezvous for overten years before that. The

1983 edition of Labyrinth received a medalistrating from the

Columbia Scholastic Press Association,while the 1985 edition received first place.

FORMAT: LABYRINTH

Printed on 60# Carnival "Sky" (palegray) paper stock, the

1984 issue measures 8 1/2" x 11" and has 44 pages,center stapled. The cover is printed on65# felt finish Beckett

"Watermelon Red" cover stock, and isillustrated with an ink drawing depicting the musculature of a manthrowing or reaching for a sphere. The magazine title appearsbelow the illustration in 72 point Fat Shadow typeface. Acoated cover stock has been used for subsequent issues.

4 Within the magazine, text and authors are setin 8 point

Helios typeface, titles in 12 point Heliosbold, and artists in 8 point Helios italic. In order to print asmuch work as possible,

the staff eliminated the title page, andmade full use of both

inside covers. The final page is dedicatedto a recent Little

Rock Central graduate and outstanding memberof the community who

died in a car accident shortly before themagazine went to press.

Photographs and artwork are used throughoutthe magazine, and

the center spread features a gallery ofdrawings and paintings.

The prose pieces are arranged in three14-pica width columns per

page, with boxed featuresinserted in some of the prose text.

PRODUCTION: CREATIVE WRITING CLASS

Any seniors in the elective creatingwriting class are

eligible to apply for positions on theLabyrinth staff, by

submitting a piece of writing. Several weeks intothe year, after

the students in the class have becomefamiliar with each other

and various talents have surfaced, theclass votes to select the

magazine editors. In addition to the generaleditor, editors are

selected for lay-out, poetry, prose, andart. A business manager

is also selected.

Ms. Graw, the current magazineadvisor, notes that the

creative writing class has had up totwenty-one students, but

that she hopes to reduce that number tosixteen to maintain the

quality of instruction. By the time work onthe magazine begins,

Ms. Graw's role as a teacher in a classdiminishes, and she

begins to function more as a consultant for thestaff members. 5

Apart from a poem on thededication page written byKay

Fish, the 1984 advisor, allwriting comes from the students.

Staff members also complete50 percent of the editing,and all work was the artwork, photography,and proofr'ading. Pasteup done by the printer to guaranteeprinting artwork across the gutter. Ms. Fish noted thatalthough this was moreexpensive and removed the staff's controlof the magazine slightly,it was worth the extra money to havethe artwork lined upcorrectly.

SUBMISSIONS: POETRY WORKSHOP

All students are encouragedto submit works forpublication in the magazine by meansof ad campaigns, posters,and announcements. Ms. Graw alsoacknowledges the tremendoussupport from the English faculty who encouragestudents to submit. In addition, for three days each year,members of the creative writing class teach poetryworkshops to sophomore English classes. Many of the poems inthe 1984 edition camefrom these workshops. Generally, works from the artclasses are culled, next the

poetry and prose areselected, and then the finalart pieces are

selected for publication.During the writing selection process,

Ms. Grew gives the staffevaluation guidelines. Theliterary not in the editor reads aloud thosepieces submitted by students

creative writing class,while works submitted by classmembers

are read aloud bytheir respective authors.Staff members then the staff will vote on whether toinclude the work. Occasionally, recommend revisions to the authorof a promising piece, andif

the author is agreeable tothe changes, the revisedpiece is 6

accepted. Ms. Graw retainsthe power of veto during thevoting process. In addition to poetry, Labyrinthincludes short stories, and movie and literaryreviews, A local concern thatinfluences life at Little Rock Centralis the large number of foreign students. To reflect thisinfluence the staff included a poemin

Spanish by a Mexican student,and a prose work chronicling the cultural adventures of aNorwegian exchange student.

Among the suggestions from theColumbia Scholastic Prens

Association judges, were thatstudents submit more short stories focusing on one main characterwho changes because of an experience, and that the magazireinclude more humor. Staff members, however, choose notto make assignments or ask that students submit any particulartype of short story because they do not wish to dictatewhat students should write.They select

only from the materialssubmitted.

FUNDING: PUBLICATION FEE

The staff receives approximately$1,000 of its funds from

the school budget, withanother $1,000 from advance salesof

the magazine. Ac thebeginning of each year, students who sowish

pay a publicationsfee of approximately$28.00 to receive the school newspaper, yearbook, andliterary magazine. The magazine

budget receives $1.00 from eachfee paid. Donations frommagazine

patrons solicited by lettersfrom the business manager provide

approximately $700, while single copysales account for another

$50. Expenses run from $2,500 to$2,800. 7

The staff produces the magazine at a cost of approximately

$3.00 per copy for a print run of 750, and sells it at $2.00 per copy. The cost of commercial paste-up for the 1984 edition increased expenses somewhat beyond those for previous issues.

PROBLEMS: ANONYMITY

Ms. Graw admits that having submissions read aloud poses a problem with anonymity for students in the creative writing class.

Some are reluctant to read their works alouu in front of the staff. Even if the literary editor reads the work, if it is one the author has been working on in the class workshops the students know who the author is, which makes voting awkward.

Although she does not yet have a solution to this problem short of eliminating the reading altogether, she does plan to make some changes in the procedure to keep the voting unbiased while still allowing staff members to hear the works aloud.

The 1984 issue was the last for Ms. Fish. Her successo, Ms.

Graw, did not collaborate with her prior to taking over the advisor's duties, and has completed only two issues. The success of these issues in competitions held by Columbia Scholastic Press

Association and the National Council of Teachers of English

suggest that the transition has been a smooth one, and that

Labyrinth will continue its tradition of high literary and design

quality developed under the direction of its previous advisor.

***

Copies of Labyrinth may be obtained from

Little Rock Central High School

111th and Park Streets 8

Little Rock, PR 72202

Cost: $2.35 (includes postage)

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iv .- ;,,,-..,,, , ---,_-_= Table of Contents PC ETRY After All John Buffalo 17 Fairy Dream Monique Clark 2 Funeral William Belmaster 18 2 a.m. Doug Griep 2 Flowers In the Rain John Buffalo 18 The Explosion of the Sun The Wafts, at Captain Crisdale's Cindy Fiser 2 Eric Barlund 19 Night Shades Kelly Holt 2 A Simple Sound Rose Ann Bamhill ...19 Morning Voices Caitlin Scott 3 Zloude Jennifer Dickey 19 Flashlight Jon Kennedy 3 I Remember John Buffalo 28 Good Morning Andrea Wood 3 For the Funolit Eric Bariund 29 Cemetery Chuck Hanson 8 Boys 12 and Under Freestyle Gettysburg Rose Ann Barnhill 8 Doug Griep 29 Man Is Super or Skip Williams 8 Solo Ramer* Caesar Pineda 29 In the Shadows Joe Daniel 9 For a Happier Ending John B ilalo ...30 Grandma's Lover Monique Clark 10 Bus Rider Eric Bariund 31 Sing Me a Song, Grandma Tracks Eric Barlund 31 Jessica Eubanks 10 Deadly Webs Paul Grundl 3. Page 8 Grandpa Hal Mindy Hawes 11 The Sparrows Caitlir Scott 35 Wended Monique Clark 11 Waiting for the Big Catch Room 324 John Buffalo 11 Raphael Meadow 35 Tourist Information Shannon Boshears 15 Master of the Crowd Ross Crawford _38 Dark Side of my Yard Cindy Fiser ....15 Skipping Class Poem 38 The Sailboat Builder Caitlin Scott ....16 Old Classroom Mickie Hampton 37 The Rock Zoo Rose Ann Barnhill 16 DNA Molacula Brent Crawford ... 37 Sleep Caitlin Scott 17 In My Closet Jane Coiclasure 37 The Onset of Winter March 22, 1984 Kay Fish 44 Rose Ant, Bamhill 17

PROSE Patterns Caitlin Scott 4.6 The Jailed Bird Marion Hotel Jeff Warren 6-7 Shannon Boshears 24-26 Nightwatch John Arrant 9 Farewell, Mr. Van Gogh Amy Ward 227.28 Peppy Doug Griep 12.14 Norway-Arkansas Rikke Knudsen 32-33 February Rose Ann Barnhill 18 My Summer Job Rose Ann Barnhill ...33 The Tarnished Dove Cidney's Choice Barry Lake 34 Mike Knight 20-21 The Wasp Wars Chad Savage 35 Page 16 REVIEWS Monty Python and the Holy Grail A Rose for Emily: A Gothic Metaphor Eric Barlund 38 Conevery Bolton 40-41 18111111 Alice's Restaurant Leslie McKenzie 39 The Blood Method: Violence in The Rocky Horror Picture Show John Irving's Novels Caitlin Scott 39 Leslie McKenzie 42-43

GRAPHICS Joanne Pastel John Arrant 22 Tampa Kris Faui 1 Nude Charcoal Daniel Broening 22 Pen and Ink Wayne Depriest 4.5 John's Lady Pastel John Arrant 23 Photograph Shannon Boshears and POdrIlit of a French Lady Pastel Lee Quinn 6 Christopher Weems 23 Photograph Hanna Bartsch 7 Saliboating at Glen Cove Watercolor Pen and Ink Daniel Broening 8 Christopher Weems 23 Page 37 Pen and Ink John Arrant and Pencil and Ink Michael Rains 24-26 Chuck Hanson 9 Pencil John Arrant 30 Pen and Ink Daniel Broening 9 Photograph Shannon Boshoars and Photograph Shannon Boshears and Lee Quinn 29 Lee Quinn 10 Pen and Ink John Arrant 30 Pencil John Arrant 11 Photograph Shannon Boshears and Photograph Hanna Bartsch 13 Lee Quinn 31 31 Ph8t9r8Ph Hanna Bartsch 15 Pencil John Arrant Photograph Shelly Fletcher 15 Photograph Hanna Bartsch 33 Photograph Hanna Bartsch 16 Pen and Ink Paul Grundl 34 Pen and Ink C.H. Kerr 17 Pen and Ink 'Chad Savage 35 Photograph Shannon Boshears and Pen and Ink Chad Savage 36 Lee Quinn 18 Photograph Hanna Bartsch 37 Photograph Shelly Fletcher 19 Pendli J.R. Anglin 38 Pen and Ink Chuck Hanson 20-21 Pen and Ink Chad Savage 39 Gallery Pen and Ink Chad Savage 40-41 Pastel Pen and Ink Darryl Thacker 42.43 Lady in Green Dress Page 39 John Arrant 22 Pen and Ink Nancy Wilson 44

I LABYRINTH, 1984 12 t Shades

u nsets Linger Like Children begging For a few more minutes Before bedtime. Kelly Holt

The Explosion of The Sun

When the sun explodes in the morning I am aware

of the flowers and plants, the tables, the chairs, sometimes the ants.

I sit in the sun and absorb the explosion, I think of the world as it turns on its axis, I feel its rotations cker out only in the morning h morsel in the explosion of the sun. a of Fairy Fire canyon walls Cindy Fiser

ght. AIM

u..ic whines from trees ries jump, hop, scramble, ance around the fire that burns higher and higher As if to touch the sky and melt the stars Into one great Fairy Eye White with sparks of violet and 2 A.M. green jumping, snapping Crackling out to charge the atmosphere. I walk quickly up the forest path, Stumble down a hill, then stop. The Fairy dance etches Itself on The wind Is gone, the air suspended. the canyon wall Ice covered aspens stand, Leaving trails of hatred and Photographs of live wood under moonlight. sorrow Above the icy branches Like snail-slime Snow like light-crazed moths twists Slithering along the cracks. And flutters throught the fullmoon. They stop, cock their heads I hear whispers as it Suddenly aware of the quiet, Brushes brittle pine needles. Squat and pray, Doug Griep Put out the fire, And leave my dreams to me. Monique Clark

2 13 Morning Voices I. Each morning I pause like a drowned man I float on the surface of sleep, Slowly the waves of my thoughts calm and solidify. Flashlight The bedsheets are cold. I turn over I'm camping alone, To replay my dreams on the inside of my eyelids Darkness awaits my careless steps. Until someone tugs at my shoulder. A light flashes in my head, My feet thump dully on the floor. More than thought, more than h II. When I waken in the morning A click of the switch. Ilift myself up I dig through the fog with It Starting with my very insides and moving out Trees light up and rocks f 'Till my arms push back the blankets and reach The battery is drained, High above my head to pull the heavens down. The bulb is burned o I tighten my muscles, The light is gone and blink my eyes to see. Am back to cam III. An alarm clock stabs me from my sleep each morning. The day descends like bricks, I stumble to my cold tile bathroom, My knees give. My fingers tremble. The rn;,,or hangs Too pailful for my eyes. I cut myself when I shave.

Every night our beds spin eastward toward the fire, We rise to find our windows pouring light And our life-blood smeared across the clouds. Caitlin Scott

Good Morning

1 Sunbeams stream thro They fall upon rump Her eyelashes flu Her flushed c Emerge from Like it H She sh Softly She Patterns Caitlin Scott His shout slurred in the dance words beating down loud and fast, wasn't yelling. music, "Hey, Chris, if you're gonna and her certain question: How did it "When Daddy comes home," her be my girl, you're not dancing with happen, Christy? Christy, how?. .. mother warned from the kitchen anyone but me." She thought he She thought about how her knees doorway as Christy trudged up the was kidding, of course. This was bent as she walked, how they stairs, "He'll be angry." only their second date, and she was stretched her raw flesh, how the dirt They would both be angry soon. having a wonderful time dancing at in the wound stung. She stood for She flinched as she sat on the cold the party. She whirled around mak- a long time on the back porch, warm subway ,eat. It would be late and ing her skirt fly out in a circle. Her blood trickling from her elbows and they'd see her blood and they'd let heart was beating, and the air was knees. Just as she was about to go their voices get louder and louder hot. She didn't even see his expres- inside, her mother opened the door and shake her shoulders. sion. He hit her in the face with a and stepped out. The car stopped for a nwment. beer bottle. "Christy. I was about to call you She looked at her watch: 1:15. Twen- In the subway she kept seeing to come ... Oh, my God!" her mouth tv minutes frcm her house. Maybe that scene instead of the ads on the contorted. "Oh, dear God. What they wouldn't be up. The blood on walls of the car. The posters and red have you done to yourself? How her hand was still red. She closed graffiti blurred beneath her memory could you?!" She gasped in her her eyes not to see. No one had ever of laughter, music, and dull brown high-pitched voice, pressing her hit her before. bottles. She shivered and pushed it daughter's head hard against She had seen her father hit her all away. Through the dirty black herself and forcing back her own mother once. It was the summer window she felt the cold coming in. tears. The daring littlegirl, tne after she turned thirteen, Just after She was numb. She hated subways. Rtupid little girl, all hurt, all mangled, her mother's first bout of brnchitis. But she didn't have enough money how could she have done that to She and her mother were sitting up for a taxi, she was sixteen, and the herself. She picked up her daughter, late talking about her friends at only place to go was home. Home carried her inside, and set her on the school. Her mother was smoking, was like a dead weight. She didn't kitchen counter. coughing a little, and hiding the want to think about what she would After the rubbing alcohol and ashes in a styrofoam cup. Somehow face there. She closed her eyes. bandages, her mother's face grew they didn't hear her father's "She's bleeding," the whispers calm and serious, "Tell me honest- footsteps. Without warning he flung hovered in the rumble of the sub- ly now, Christy, how did you hurt open the kitchen door, took two way. Half asleep, her hand went in- yourself?" Christy thought about steps, and hit his wife in the face voluntarily to the cuts on her mouth what they had told her to say about with the palm of his hand. The and chin. They felt thick and sticky the back steps. But her mother was cigarette went flying. Christy under her fingers. looking at her and holding her screamed. She had come home bleeding hands. She took a deep breath, "I "I knew I heard you coughing," he once before when she was seven. was riding skateboards with Jenny growled, his face redder than the She had been riding a skateboard and Mark, and I was going fast and mark on his wife's cheek. "Stop do- and her parents had told her not to. it was scary and I fell off and.. ." ing this to yourself. Stop tearing up "Just don't tell them," her friends Her motherighed, "You idiot. your lungs. All right?" He took a had said. "Say you fell down the You silly little idiot. You'll have to step toward her, "Well?" back steps." stay in your room the rest of the Her mouth opened, but she didn't All the way home she was more day." Her mother helped her off the say a thing, just stared at him and afraid than hurt, afraid of her counter. She didn't mind staying in started to sob. Then he began cry- Mother's tight, angry face, her angry her room, and at least her mother ing too and knelt by her chair and

& held her and said, "I'm sorry. I'm Three of her girlfriends had be sick now. Her stop was next, and sorry," until her sobs were quieter brought her home. They had made she was almost home. She stood up and she said. their way giggling to the front door, to go. The woman across from her "No, I'm sorry." where they must have spent five stood up, too. She couldn't imagine "No, It's my fault. I'm sorry." minutes trying to unlock the door. where the woman could be going in She sighed a little and looked up When her father finally swung it their neighborhood of tall apartment from his shoulder. Her red NT; open, he took one look at her and buildings and insurance offices. eyes found her daughter pressed in- was furious. His ruddy face twisted She glanced back at the woman to the farthest corner of the room. with anger and disgust. following her up the empty row of seats, swaying weakly on her high- She stared at them with her mouth He pulled her into the house. "I heeled black boots. As she neared hanging open. know what you've been doing. You "It's all right Christy. Poor baby. reek of it. Don't you have any self- the doors, the woman reached out Don't he afraid. Come here." Chris- respect?" He shook her shoulders and touched her arm. Chris drew ty ran to them and held on as if she and screamed into her face. He'd away. could protect them. make her understand. "Do you want "I'm sorry," the woman's voice came out softly. She felt her ankles She never saw that happen again, to become one of those goddamn but she was always afraid that It alcoholicbums sleepingin threatening to give way inside her boots. There was a chance. "I need would. She knew her mother smok- newspapers? Is thct it? Do you want ed sometimes in secret. to be eating from other people's gar- money. I haven't eaten in days." "Patterns go on like that," she bage cans when you're thirty?" The woman's face looked pale thought, "like my momma and like By that time she was cold sober. beneath the make-up. "Will you use the click of the cars as they go She stared into his face so like his it to buy something to eat?" Chris through the tunnels." own and said, "No, I don't and I managed to ask without moving her She opened her eyes. A lady in a didn't mean to make myself drunk." bottom lip. She never rer-,mbered She watched him strikehis being hungry, but her stomach hurt fake leather jacket was sitting off the across from her. She blinked. The forehead with his hand. She knew now. She Just wanted to get woman's hair stood out from her he didn't believe her. He never subway. head in pink clumps. Wnan the believed her, and it wasn't always "I need money," the woman woman saw that Christy was awake, her fault. repeated. Tile subway stopped and her eyes moved away from her face. "That's why you drankitall, the doors opened. She watched the She looked rich, but she was beaten right?" He grew calmer and just girl reach into her purse and take and bleeding. There was a chance, looked at her. She was so like her out a few dollar bills and some that the girl's face might hurt the mother, her face turned up to his in coins. She didn't say thanks. Chris way her own empty stomach hurt, the dim light, her eyes hard, stub- watched her walk down the platform the wey her own heart hurt every bom, her thin mouth painted across and fall into a seat to sleep again. Chris turned io leave, to go home. time she moved. her face. Finally, he shook his head. Christy's chin and mouth did hurt. It would all wait until morning. "Just Only four quiet blocks, and she fac- She stared across the aesie at the go to bed." ed her front door. woman in leather. What could she Later, her mother had opened the The key turned silently In her be thinking? What conclusions door to her bedroom. A thin strand hand. She opened the door and could that woman reach about her of light fell across the floor. She crept through the house. Just as swollen face and round ve:vet shirt? could see her mother's figure she was about to go upstairs, she The woman turned her head and ap- silhouetted in the doorway and hear noticed a single point of red light peared to sleep. What would her her voice, "Chris, if you need to be through the kitchen door. mamma and daddy think of her sick tonight, you just come wake me 'Chris?" now? Only three weeks ago they up." "Momma," she whispered. had grounded her for =cling home The subway lurched. Christy had She could smell the smoke. "I drunk. the horrible feeling she needed to know. I'm going to bed now. Good-

I r, LT Wayne Depriest 5 LABYRINTH, 1984 16 night."Itwould allwait until crushed her cigarette into the plate. morning. "but who are you to talk anyway. "You sound funny, Chris. Are you You go to those wild parties and get okay?" She couldn't answer her yourself beaten ur. You're no dif- mother. "Come in here. I'll get the ferent. You're tearing yourself up. light." You're bleeding." "No, Momma. Don't bother." Neither of them said anything for "But you always were the one a while. Chris went to the sink and afraid of the da:k." The light blink- washed her face with warm water ed on. They stared at each others and soap that stung. When she turn- faces bathed in light, hers with a ed around her mother was watching cigarette hanging from the corner of her. her mouth, her dauther's with her lip "You're still mad at me, Mom- and chin swelling. Chris felt her ma?" Her skin felt looser now that stomach twist like a wet towel. A she's cleaned it. The mother looked plate full of ashes and cigarette at her daughter and then at her own butts lay on the table. hands. They were wrinkled now. But "Oh, Chris. What have you done she had stopped thinking about to your face? Where have you how old she was getting, had stop- been?" She moved closer and held ped counting the cigarettes. She her daughter's face in her hands. was even trying to stop worrying "The guy I was with hit me," she about Chris, just let the days slip by. stammered. What happens, happens, "No,I The mother was still inspecting understand, better than you under- her daughter's face. "What did you stand me. But Chris," she said, do to make him do that?" reaching for another cigarette, "It's not my fault, Momma. I was "Don't go to thoseparties only dancing. Everything's not anymore." fault. And you're getting smok Chris shuddered, "Maybe this my face." She pushed her mo time," she thought, looking at her away. "You're always getting s mother's head in the cloud of in my f- .e." smoke, "There's a chance, I'm hurt "Well, I'm terribly sorry!" She enough to change."

The Marion Hotel Jeff Warren

"'There she goes," sighed a Rock with the Old State House at observer said, "'and pretty soon, member of The Little Rock Club as one end and the Governor's Man- POW! They'd have mamas and he and dozens of other members sion at the other, his dream, like bellboys and everybody else trying watched from atop the Union Na- many others, was shattered by the to fish that kid out of the pond. I tional Bank Building while the ma- Great Depression. used to love to watch that.'" The lob- jestic Marion Hotel caved in on In al Arkansas Gazette article by was also a home for a handful of itself. This scene was noted by marking the Marion's fiftieth an- regular "lounge guests" who met to Arkansas Gazette reporterBill niversary in 1957, Ernest Valachov!c report and to see who was in town. Lewis, who recorded the reaction in noted that the hotel had originally Ben Shelly, former manager of the his article "Little Rock Hotel's Pass- cost $250,000. Incorporating 175 hotel, would send them cards sug- ing Saluted by Tenacious Few at rooms in six stories, it celebrated its gesting that the lobby chairs were Club." (18 Feb. 1980). The destruc- Grand Opening with an orchestra for guests, but they would hand the tion of The Marion Hotel marked not playing in the lobby and visitors cards back in annoyed refusal. The only the death of a famous landmark crowding in to see the new building Greenroom became famous for its but the end of a political forum as first hand. Southern style cooking and at- well. The atmosphere created at the tracted a good portion of the Opened on January 9, 1907, the Marion was definitely high class, as "church crowd" on Sundays, while Marion was named for the wits of Mike Trimble's account confirms. the Coffee Shop was a gathering one of the chief stockholders, Her- The lobby was tastefully decorated place at all hours of the day and man Kahn. George R. Brown, who in Georgia marble and housed a night. (26 March 1970) briefly owned the Gazette, had a much enjoyed frog pond:"'I "Anybody who was anybody got dream of making Center Street the remember those little kids, they down to the Marion every now and main thoroughfare through Little used to try to pet the frogs," and then," Joseph Sitlington declared in

6 17 "The Marion: Memories of tl e Old and GovernorWinthrop P. The Marion was closed on May 1, Gal's Life." (17 Feb. 1980) These Rockefeller to a candidate for coun- 1970. "'The Marion is a victim in- "anybodies" included President ty office who sat in the lobby and creasing costs, changing times, and Theodore R. Roosevelt, President passed out vegetables to gain an exodus of business from Harry Truman, Will Rogers, Helen votes. One very wealthy candidate, downtown." Houston J. Burford, Keller, and Charles Lindbergh. Ma- convinced that campaign head- owner of the hotel at the time, ex- jor social events at the Marion in- quarters at the Marion was man- plained in Jimmy Jones' Gazette cluded the Debutante Ball and ,. datory for success, offered to buy report "Little Rock Hotel Marion, tie Rock Junior Cotillion. Gaston the hotel when he was told that Victim of Change." (26 March 1970) Saux, former manager of the hotel, there was no available space for Supporters of the Marion urged instituted Tea Dances every Sunday him. restoration. In a letter to the editor afternoon during the 1930's. Before the days of the state in the Gazette, one citizen wanted Another socially significant event legislative council, the Marion was to preserve it so that the state was underway routinely by about 10 traditionally the home away from legislature could continue to func- p.m. as ladies of the evening began home and most Arkansas tion. He pointed out, "With to arrive by cab. "As they hurried by legislators. A "lobby guest" regular statesmen scattered all over town in the front steps, two very slight nods told Trimble of how state officials various hostelries, and with no cen- by one of the bell captain's would bribe state officials to spot tral, socialable meeting place, the lieutenants would signal them that lobbyists entering the hotel and to business of governance simply all was well anditwould be reportbackwhichoftheir does not get done with anything like business as usual upstairs." associates the lobbyists had visited. the ease that prevailed when they The Marion was the convention "'That's how they kept track of who were all in a covey at the bountiful center of Arkansas for decades and was on the take," he said. "The go- Marion." (19 April 1976) was headquarters for such organiza- ing rate for a scout like that was As thousands watched, progress tions as the Rotary Club, the Lions $10.00 a night."' destroyed the Marion at 10:41 a.m. Club, and the Civitans Club. It was Another "lobby guest" said that on February 18, 1980, to make way deemed the "other capitol" because the slickest political move he had for a new hotel and convention of the political dealings that occur- ever seen at the Marion was during center. (Lewis, 18 Feb. 1980) Mrs. r,:d there. the 1965 Young Democratic Club's Joseph Sitlington said, "You always In a personal interview Mrs. Convention when the faction led by had a special feeling walking into Joseph Sitlington described the Sam Boyce of Newport out- the Marion; it had an air, even when Marion as a natural for anything maneuvered the faction that was it was old and tired. It never occur- from conventions to election head- loyal to former Governor Orval E. red to any of us that it would be torn qt. arters because of its abundance Faubus. Trimble reported an down." of office space, sleeping capacity, eyewitness account: "'The Crucial Today, the modern twenty-story aid the convenience of the Green session was about 2 p.m. and the Excelsior Hotel has risen like a rtoom and Coffee Shop. Other Boyce faction assembled in the Phoenix from the ashes of the hotels could not compete because basement meeting room ahead of Marion. With today's businessmen they were too small or because they time. They blocked the stairs with and politicians using telecom- were rundown. Another reason for their partisans and influenced the munication devices to hold con- its political importance was that elevators to stay off the basement ferences as well as airline transpor- most of the politicians and leaders floor, and by the time the Faubus tation to shorten business trips, lived nearby. faction had managed to make its there is no longer a need for the Candidates who used the Marion way downstairs, the Boyce slate of smoke-filled backrooms fo the as campaign headquarters ranged officers had already been elected."' M .rion. from Senator J. William Fulbright by Hanna Bartsch Cemetery The land is flat as far as my eyes can see Gray-white crosses spring from the earth like wheat. Perfect straight rows stand ready for harvest. But no one visits them anymore. Men crucified for the beliefs of a Nation, All that is left is a cross, unattended. Weeds growing, unchecked Entwine the rotting wood crosses To drag them back beneath the ()round. Chuck Hanson

Man Is Superior Gettysburg Man is superior Where man and h3e died, Is that what we say? The grass was we and Plum Run flowed The ultimate product With the blood of fifty thousand men. Of God, to this day Foul winds brought the vultures To sit in the budding Virginia trees. King of the jungle Gone since are the bones, Or so it might seem. But keen is the memory of the vultures, A King of our sort Like homesick children, God did not deem, Still they come to haunt The battleground covered with crosses. Supreme race is power, Rose Ann Barnhill Our era is blown, It's time for another To sit at the throne.

Death and destruction By our own hand, Only to leave The burned barren land.

Man is superior Is that what we said? Quite irrelevant, Now that we're dead. Skip Williams

by Daniel Broening 19 It's 910 as a thick mist covers the cupids and flowers and a carved crawling from their sockets. dark field of Dunsinane Cemetery, message: "I'll miss you." Despite the reactions of the a mist which sticks to the throats of As the two men pass a bottle of cemetery guards, the corpse con- nightwatchmen Jake Lonegy and green whiskey between them, Niles tinues to free itself from its prison Niles Bens. says, "This American stuff is pretty like a butterfly escapes from its cac- "Sure is one 'ell of a soupy night, good but caun't beat ours. .. coon. Finally it lifts itself up from eh Niles!" Jake starts with a smile Right?" the grave which was to be its final as sinister as the place he is to "Yea... It's ah mighty good think home, and it hisses. Its eyes fix protect. ' at cheeky buther 'n law ah mine themselves on the seemingly frozen "Kinda gives me th' creeps." wurks at the ship yard," Jake Jake and Niles. Its face, now a total Niles turns his head and continues, replies. grimace,moves towardthe "... like th' first time we ate our sup- "Ere you are, mate, 'ere's a taste cemetery watchmen. per here." for you b'fore dinner," Niles says as Suddenly Niles and Jake let out "Forty years of wurking and he pours the harsh liquid on the soft a scream, not unlike a battle cry, eating here and it still gives you th' dirt of the new grave. and lunge furiously to attack the creeps hey 'ere's 'at new grave. Jake looks up and says, "I am bit animated corpse. The sound of What say we put down th' shovels hungry. What say we get started hisses and the breaking of dead and crack open a bone ov'r th' new digging." flesh and bone fills the night air. The blokes 'ead," Jake says with a "I'm all for 'at !dee," Niles says; vigorous furiosity of th:-e two old chuckle. and as if on cue, the earth begins to men proves more than the corpse "Sounds like a good idea to me, bubble upward and part. The men can handle; it is easily defeated. mate," Niles answers with an evil gasp and back up. Their faces are "Well at least we didn't 'ave to dig look in his eye. twisted in horror, their lips open it up, right Jake?" The two men rest their shovels wide as if to release sound, their "Yea ... eh would you mind ietin' and themselves on the cold gray eyes open so wide they appear to be me 'ave the fingers this time?" stone warmed with etchings of In The Shadows I can see the demon standing Over my rivers body in the shadows. Its massive seven foot body, muscles of steel, Could crush diamond, Its horns like twisted javelins cruelly tipped, talons like swords, teeth like daggers, All dripping blood and poison in the shadows. Its breath reeks with the stench of brimstone its scales are granite that none can pierce, He has struck down my rival as I bid him to And the demon says, "It is time to pay," I know now why it is wrong To bargain with Hell, in the shadows. Joe Daniel by Daniel Broening

9 LABYRINTH, MN Sing Me a Song, Grandma Grandma sits on the couch and rocks As she sings "Go Tell It On The Mountain" I walk over to her, fake a heart attack, And fall to the floor. Grandma She puts her feet on my back and closes her eyes "Hey, wake up. I'm dead; you're supposed to Fall beside me and cry, 'My baby is dead."' "If I got on that floor, I'd be there For the rest of my life." I get up and I sit beside her With my head on her stioulder. Grandma's Lover "Sing me a song, Grandma, "Jambe laya" As she sings, I go to sleep, I go through her things I know she will be here when ! wake up. Everything I expect is there: Jessica Eubanks Old letters from Grandad, a few elementary grammar books, Two Edgar Allan Poe collections Ane, her wedding dress (once white, now faded to ecre) In the bottom of her hope chest Lies an antique shoe box. I blow the dust from the lid, open it, Set it aside.

A black and white photo of a sailor Stares back at me. Ilift it, and Underneath lies a delicate pair of black silk nylons, A few letters. One by one, I read the letters. Every 'I Lose You' is circled, underlined Except the last letter There is no 'I Love You'. I remember Grandma telling me Before she passed away. "I died long ago, this'll just make it easier for me."

I fold the fragile papers, put them back into the envelopes. My tears have dried and I pack her things back into the chest. Everything except the shoe box.

Outside, a cool breeze has come up And I yell at the loading men To be careful with the chest. I get into my car, set the box beside me. And follow the moving van back to my house. A single tear finds its way to my chin I am shivering in the afternoon heat. : shake my hair in the wind Rushing through the windows My tear lands justly on the shoebox.

In my mind, I see it. Sinking into the box, Smearing the ink on the last letter Just as Grandma's tear must have been the one To smear the signature

Finally, Robert. Monique Clark

by Shannon Boahears and Lee Quinn

21 Grampa Hal

"Knucklehead" That's what Grampa Hal called me. Then he laughed. I can't exactly remember His laugh Or his face, But I remember We fished, He helped me drive the big red boat. Grampa held my hand We played his version of patty-cake. I thought Grampa Hal was young like me. I could never wait to visit My best pal. Since his death I've heard stories - "Six speeding tickets in one day" And his spur of the moment excursions. Maybe he did over-do it, But he was the happiest man I ever knew. He stayed young, And so will I, If I remember Grampa Hal. Mindy Hawes Grandpa

Grandad I see Iim Fie sits in the boat by John Arrant Alone, Fishing. Wrinkles on his forehead Hold dust of years passed Like bookshelves, Tired with their burden. He turns to see us coming His face creases to a smile He Wands Room 324 Stretches Papaw lies in his bed on the third floor of the Dewitt Nursing Home. As we pull along-side him The straps hold him tight and the drugs confuse him. He looks at me first Through the small window he can see trees and fields. I cross from one boat to the other The tall dark wall of a forests' edge and the rich "Hey Punkin!" he says black ground, frozen hard. His voice like gravel He is alone in his world of horses and cotton. I can smell the dust now, He doesn't see the parking lot of cars In his skin He doesn't know his wife of fifty-three years As he reaches out, He doesn't hear his daughter crying in the hall Hugs me, He doesn't smell the yellow death of his childhood Closes hi.. -yes, friend in the room next door. And rests his tired chin on my shoulder. John Buffalo Monique Cla,*

11 LABYRINTH, 1964 22 Pappy Doug Griep

"Pappy! You musn't go so close mouthful of coffee and promptly it's going to be a great day. to the edge. Let's go back to the sta- spit it out. "How deep is this canyon, tion wagon and have some coffee." "Damn, this coffee's hot!" He Ralph?" Pappy maneuvered his tennis splashed the rest of the coffee on "I think it's about a thousand feet shoe under a pebble and neatly the ground. "I need some more cof- deep." flicked it over the edge of the cliff. fee, make it snappy and make it "Jesus. Boy, this is one heck of He turned to the canyon for a final cooler." He thrusted his cup in a ditch." Pappy took another sipof look, then walked hacx to his Ralph's face. coffee. He swallowed it and then daughter Jenny. Hmmph. A twenty- "Good Lord, I just told you to be looked in his cup. "Damn, this cof- five year old girl telling me to move careful. Jenny, didn't I just say ..." fee's hot." away from the edge. Hmph. What "Oh, Ralph, please, lets have fun Jenny sighed. "C'mon, let's get does she know? She married Ralph; going or we won't have time to see what does she know about everything." anything? Ralph and Jenny gathered their "Did Ralph get doughnuts?" Pep- We've shrunk, I knew doughnut packages and threw them away. Pappy threw out the rest of py said. it. As soon as we were "We'vegotallkindsof his coffee. He neatly stuffed his doughnuts," Ralph shouted from halfway into New cellophane package into the cup, the car. He was standing at the back Mexico, I knew it. My took another puff on his cigar and of the car opening doughnut shoes felt too big. then began to steadily push the lit packages and pouring coffee. He end of the cigar through the was a tali thin man, and he had long "We've shrunk," he cellophane until it burned through sandy-brown hair. He wore jeans said aloud. at the bottom of the cup. and an open-necked shirt; his toes "Burn, sucker." were brown from wearing sandals. Ralph shut the tailgate and got in- Pappy's pace quickened once he to the car. Jenny waited by the open heard the rattle of the doughnut today; give him some more coffee," passenger door. "Let's go, Pappy." packages. He zoomed by Jenny as Jenny pleaded. Pappy dropped the cup and walk- if he didn't see her Jenny had to jog "Oh, all right." Ralph poured Pap- ed over to the open door, then stop- a couple of paces to catch up.As py's cup full of coffee. "Drink it slow ped. A perplexed look was or his they approached the car, Jenny and blow on it. And remember - it's face. began to outline the activities for hot, very hot." "My cigar, where's my cigar? Jen- the day for Pappy. "You better believe it, kid," Pap- ny, where's my cigar?" "Now first we'll go to the Devil's py answered. "I just about ..." He "I don't know, you can smoke Arch -it's supposed to be the began patting his pockets in search another one later; get in. Let's go highlight of Rattlesnake Canyon. of a light. "My matches, where's my already." Then we'll go to Rock Point, and matches? Jenny-where's my Pappy slid to the middle of the from there we'll go a couple of miles matches?" seat next to Ralph. Jenny got in and to an Indian pueblo site. The pueblo "I don't know, how am I sup-" shut the door. She always sat next sites were once occupied by the Jenny started. to the door while Ralph was driving. Zuni Indians, but somewhere "Never mind." Pappy found a He didn't want Pappy fooling around 400 A.D. a drought began matchbook in his shirt pocket and around with the door handle. Ralph started the car and pulled out onto and it..." proceeded to light his cigar. "Yeah, yeah, yeah ' Pappy inter- "I said I just about burned my the road. rupted. "Does Ralph have coffee? mouth - yes. I'll be careful - that cof- "O.K., let's see," Ralph said, Ralph, you got some coffee?" fee's hot." "we're going to Devil's Arch, right?" Pappy and Jenny reached the car Pappy took a puff on his cigar and "Yes. Go about two mi,os and we leaned against the car. His baseball should turn righ, and that road and Ralph passed them styrofoam it.It's the cups of coffee. cap was neatly placed on his head should lead us to "Be careful, this coffee's really and his small white beard was neat- highlight of the Canyon; it was sup- hot," Ralph said. "Ah, it's going to ly trimmed. The whiskers were posedly a huge boulder that was in be a great day. Here's some yellowish near his mouth where his the path of an ancient river, and the napkins." cigar poked out. He wore a blue river cut a hole in it. Then erosion The three looked out over the ca- wind-breaker, and he had on a pair and wind began widening it and ..." iron as they ate. Pappy slurped a of old blue jeans. Yes, he thought, As Ralph and Jenny discussed

12 23 the geological history of the Devil's Arch, Pappy stared out the wind- shieldatthedifferentrock formations. The Arizona morning was clear and he could see for miles. The enormous Western sky fascinated Pappy; he pushed his head up against the windshield to look at the clouds. Why is the sky so big here, he thought. In Chicago the sky isn't so big, why is it so big here? We've shrunk, I knew it. As soon as we were halfway into New Mexico, I knew it. My shoes felt toc big. "We've shrunk," he said aloud. Ralph looked at Pappy, then at Jenny, started to speak and dek.id- ed not to. Jenny continued the geology lesson. "... so for,oh, about 30,000 years the granite cooled and eventually..." Pappy sat back and lit a cigar. Crack the window, someone crack the window. He puffed hard on the cigar so that a thick layer of smoke gathered in the front seat. Pappy nudged Jenny with his elbow. "The window, open the window - I can't EREATHE." Jenny cracked open the window. They pulled into a small parking area on the side of the road. There was a small sign posted on the edge of the cliff which read Devil's Arch - Highlight of Rattlesnake Rock Canyon. by Hanna Bartsch No guardrails - Please watch your children. one arm, opened a cooler and grabb- somewhere near a cliff- Ralph, Ralph opened his door, got out, ed a cold beer. He opened it at the where is he." went to the rear and opened the precise moment Ralph shut the "Stop it, Jenny. He's gotten lost tailgate. He began to search for the tailgate. The "psssh" of the beer before, and we've always found him. camera. Jenny hopped out and ran synchronized perfectly with the He knows how to handle himself ... to the sign and then looked across "boom" of the tailgate. Pappy giggl- better than you think. Now settle the canyon. ed. This must be one hell of a beer, down and let's look around, we'll "Beautiful, just beautiful. Ralph, he thought. I'd better drink it fast. just follow his footsteps in the sand get the camera This is really great." He slouched down in tho seat so he from the car and we'll find him." "I-am-trying-to-find-it-honey. couldbarelyseeoverthe They walked back to the car and Geez, here it is rigi.i :ii front of me." dashboard. studied the ground for traces of Ralph put the camer ii strap around Ralph was standing next to Jen- Pappy's footsteps. They discovered his neck, shut the tailgate and walk- ny near the cliff's edge, fiddling with the sand was too packed near the ed over to the sign and Jenny. the camera. car to see any footsteps. The sun Pappy remained in the car puffing "I wish we had a bigger lens. I shone on the tinted windshield; on his cigar. He had his arms stret- won't be able to get much of a shot Ralph and Jenny couldn't see Pap- ched our on top of the seats, and his with this thing. Why don't you stand py inside the car sipping on his legs were spread-eagle with the up on that rock and Pappy can stand beer. Pappy remained silent. gearshift between his knees. He had ...wait a minute, where is Pappy? "Well, Jenny," Ralph said, "it watched Jenny read the sign, and Where'd he go?" Ralph turned and looks like we're gonna have to he heard her ramble wildly to looked out at the road. search for him. He couldn't have herself. As he listened to Ralph "Ralph, I don't know. Didn't you gotten very far; he probably just cuss during the search for the see him get out? My God, he's pro- went for a stroll." camera, he reached to the back with bably wandering somewhere... "I'll go down the path and see if g24LABYRINTH, 1984 i Q. 13 off his sandal and shook the sand from it. This is ridiculous. Jenny was walking along a path near a pile of boulders. Suddenly He was back in Fort Sill now, driving in- she stopped and looked down. Fossils, fossils! I've stumbled into to town to pick up Roxanne...he was a fossil bed! She picked up a rock and studied it. Hmmm. A crinoid. looking forward to what the night would "Ralph, the camera, bring the camera!" bring. But Ralph was far away shaking sand from his sandals. The twisted solo of a guitar shrieked out. Something popped in i Pappy's brain. He turned the key and revved up the engine. He pull- ..ed onto the road and speeded away. he's down there near those recording. He could hear the au- "Roxanne, watch this!" he boulders. You go up the path, see if dience whistling and clapping. He screamed. he's up there. And Ralph, if we don't drank his beer and snapped his find him in a half an hour, we'll fingers. One-snap, two-snap, three- "Here comes a car, Jenny. That come back" 4nap. .. might be him." "And call the police." "But right now I'd like to talk a lit- Ralph and Jenny were sitting in Pappy finished his beer. What the tle about this tune you're hearin'." the shade of the large boulder. They hell are those two up to, he This is, of course, the Green had searched for an hour for Pappy wondered. They're running around Onions. and had finally given up. When they like a pair of headless chickens. He It was a very, very big hit of the came back to the car, they giggled as he popped open his se- early sixties in this country of ours discovered it was gone. The spot cond beer. Headless chickens. The and of course- down the highway was shimmering car was parked next to a boulder It was composed and wobbling in a mirage and then large enough to shade the car. Pap - and recorded suddenly the car became clear. It py rolled down the windows, a In Memphis, Tennessee, right was a state trooper. breeze cooled the interior. He was here in the United STATESSSS of "Ralph, something tells me Pap - confused ebout why Halph and Jen- AMERICA" py is in that trooper-car." ny had come up to the car and had Peppy was getting excited now, "I know. I feel sick, Jenny." not spoken to him. They seemed to his chin was punching in and out The car pulled onto the dirt spot have lost something. Whatever it A chill went up then down and drove up next to Jenny and was they were looking for must not his neck. Ralph. They stood up as the officer have been too important since they He drank the last swallow with got out of the car. hadn't asked for his help. He had his left hand and grabbed another "Hello. Got an old man in here, burped but they didn't hear it. Pap - beer from the cooler with his right says he's the father of one of you- py laughed. "Geez, that was a loud hand. "PSSSH." Pappy moved two. Caught him ten miles down the burp. Well, anyway, I've got the keys himself over behind the wheel and highway doing 95 and it took ten and the beer, they can do all the gripped the steering wheel. minutes to pull him over. C'mon, sight-seeing they want, they won't He was back in Fort Sill now, driv- take a look." hear a complaint from me." He flip- ing into town to pick up Roxanne. Ralph and Jenny looked into the ped on the radio and burped again. Phosphorescent lights shimmered car. He changed the station and found off his shades; he was looking for- "Ah, Geez, Peppy, what the ... one he liked. Some blues; he hadn't ward to what the night would bring. why did you do ... uh Geez." Ralph heard any rhythm and blues in Bird Colonel McDuff would have his looked over to Jenny. "Geez." years. Peppy was ecstatic; he was ass if he knew he was taking the "Well," the officer said, "we've sitting in the shade, there was a Jeep up to Lawton. He'd Just have to got to take him down to the station. case of beer in the back seat, and make sure he cleaned the red dust You two are gonna have to come. there was some rhythm and blues off the jeep before he brought it Let's go." on the radio. He hadn't heardof back to the motor pool. He'd be off Ralph and Jenny climbed into the these guys before. to New York tomorrow and then back seat with Pappy. "I can't "...and coming up next is a overseas; this was going to be one believe you did this - no, yes, I can," groovy number by the Blues heck of a night. Ralph said. Brothers." He began bouncing his Ralph couldn't understand where The state trooper started the car. feet to the rhythm. I like the beat, that old man had gone off to. No As he began to drive onto the road, one-two, two-two, three-two ... The good shouting for him, he wouldn't Pappy spoke. "My cigars, Jenny. organ kept up and whoever played answer me anyway. He took another Where's my cigars?" the electric guitar wasn't that good, look around him; there was nothing but he kept up, too. It was a Ilve in sight but sand and rock. He took Tourist Information Enter into my world of madness. introductions shall be made if needed, depending upon your pursuit of satisfaction. On your left will be daydreams of suffering heros. To the right, fantasized obscentities acted out. Experience my world of reality. Join me in my search for the land of ash and red mountains where the sun is of purple neon and vegetation is not. Run with me through the desert of burning coals, and bathe with me in the blood of my lastvisitor. I invite you to come in, and please, close the door behind you. We will feast on each other's ideas. Let us laugh at the ones who are deprived of our luxuries and maintain sympathy for those who are not. No thinking please as we enter my abyss. As you have noticed, we are standing in the dark, due to a malfunction with the energy source. We hope not to regain power shortly. While traveling down my escalator of phobias, I ask that you keep your hands inside and your fears to yourself. For we will share feelings only when you have said yes. Don't let me scare you off just because I say things I mean. I detect a bit of resistance in your eyes. Surely you want to stay with me. Please don't turn away now! by Hanna Bartsch Don't leave, we've just begun to live. Ah . .. well, I hope you have enjoyed your stay. Please come back soon, and may I remind you that I will always be in yourmind. The Dark Side Of My Yard I am r.o hallucination. Welcome ... The garden where I cultivate to my world of madness My fears is doing well. Shannon Boshears The hysteria vines climb to intertwine with the paranoia. They grab and clutch for my wall of defense. The lone patches of time and sanity :itruggle through the hardened soil. Dark grows on the side, it won't get weeded, Worms breed, under the dark. They weave in and out of the roots, fertilize the phobias until the sun goes down. Cindy Fiser

by Sheet Fletcher

15 LABYRINTH, 1954 26 The Rock Zoo Out in the aiiey, behind our house With a stick I trace out great open peas, Lions and tigers on thA right, Bears and rabbits on the left, The giraffes and zebras I let run free. With my daddy's old paint brush I sweep the pens clean.

! stand barefooted And sudtenly a car runs over my zoo. I scream at them, they don't stop. I get on my knees and begin again To brush out my pens, But my animals have all run far away. Rose Ann Barnhill The Sailboat Builder The world at first is a pop-up picture book. Mother and Father and Johnny down the street. The backyard, the toy drum, skinned knees, mud pies Jump into my vision like Christmas.

Once I built a sailboat in the field behind my house. The grass high as my knee blew in stormy waves. I landed, threw off the anchor and waded out into .he aoods. The trees stretched farther up than I could reach. So I climbed and found the world quite different looking down, Everything bright, angling up to me, But my mother called me home for lunch.

Wandering home, through the neighbor's yards and past the saiiboat I saw a gray-silent man sitting on the curb, One hand fisted tight around a pocket knife, the other cradled a bit of wood. He stared at his hands with his gray puzzied eyes and said nothing.

I laughed aloud, beause he couldn't see The Image frozen beneath the surface of the wood. Calt!in Scott by Elaine Cornett

27 After All I cross the bridge, the flooded field, The rain gathers on the shoulders of my worn sandstone fatigues I watch it stream in front of my eyes, like hot sticky candy

Sleep The end of my cigarette glows red, It dodges the raindrops and shakes between Darkness falls in slow motion my quivering lips Like coins through water I need some place to think and feel warm, clean and dry. Like a cold wet cloth It descends to press my forehead. John Buffalo

I disappear into darkness Like sea water sinking into sand, Like thick mist enveloping airplanes. I lose consciousness in sand and cloud sleep.

My head lies sunken in the pillow, My hands hold themselves before my face ' Ike cupping drinking water, Like looking at a captured lightning bug.

I dream of falling, I hear wind rushing through my body Like salt air blowing through palm trees, Uke water pouring through a sieve.

I wake before I strike the end Before all the water seeps through my fingers, Before my hands close over lightning bugs, Before the coins lie flat on my eyelids. Caitlin Scott

The Onset of Winter

I watch a leaf twirl down the harvest breeze On fire as the sun's rays burn through Veins drained of life. It becomes lost with the many In a scarlet floor. Rain will douse their colors As they rot in the gutter And the street sweeper Will pass by unheeding. Rose Ann Barnhill

by C. H. Kerr LABYRINTH, 1984 28 by Shannon Boshears & Lee Quinn February Rose Ann Barnhill Rows of white tombstones stood substituting hubcaps for plates, or and walked over to the hole where witness to the arrival of the funeral rigging a trotline. His philosophy they were going to put my daddy. I procession at the military cemetery. was simple. He would look at me stood looking down. It was deep Daddy and i had gone past here hun- and say, "As long as you know and well-dug. The dirt was an dreds of times on our way to the air- where to go to learn what you want orange-red clay. It was like looking port. The February day was overcast to know, you don't need to know all through the dark. but wasn't cold. I didn't know half there is to know." I remembered the last time I had the people, but they said they knew the woods and rivers were Dad- seen him. On Sunday nights I me. I walked up to the blue tent dy's first love. I had to be pretty always rode to the end of our block where twenty gray fold-out chairs steady to keep up with him. When on the sideboard of his camper, his were, and where Daddy's casket sat. I was nine, Daddy took me frog gig- big red and silver camper he had "I'm just fourteen," I thought as I ging. In the dark I held onto his belt made from a Finkbeiner meat truck. sat down in the first chair of the first loop as we walked down the muddy Last Sunday night Ihad looked row, Mom sat further down, closest path to the boat. With the spotlight through the dark into the cab of his to the casket. My sister, Berkeley, along the water's edge, we could camper and said, "Good-bye, Dad- stood and read poetry at the head of see green and red spider eyes. dy." Then Ihad run back to the the flag covered casket. When we found a frog, I wouldn't let house. Daddy had always told me that Daddy gig it. He never got any frogs I stepped back from the grave as death was something a person when I went with him. the men from the funeral home shouldn't worry about. If there was I watched the two military men lowered his casket, and I said for a problem, Daddy had a solution, no fold the flag beside the casket. the last time, "Good-bye, Daddy." mntter if it was doing homework, When people started crying, I got up

Funeral Flowers in the Rain Everyone was screaming and shoutir;, My cousin Jerry ties his tie Sad and oiling. And tries to forget his mother's face. I kept a straight face. The warm summer rain presses hard on the weeds, I felt little grief. And drips from a hole in the gutter. I didn't know the man. I only went to catch a girl. The old preacher's hands shake as he searches for the page Everyone else knew him. In his leather-backed Book. I'm glad I didn't. His body seems to sway with the rainy wind, Everyone looked like elephants and cows. His funeral suit much too big for his frail frame, There was no one there for me. And his ears, much too b;,-.1 for his drawn face. Then they dropped him in and His mind sways too, That was that. But his eyes fix hard on a place above the trees William Belmaster Not glancing at the Book in his hands. John Buffalo 18 29 The Waiter at Captain Crisdale's A Simple Sound The salty waters sweep the hard sands, His white coat A seaman's voice encased in foamy suds Speckled with black oyster guts, Sings and shouts with each wash. He shucks at the bar. I watch as his soul peaks His deft hands slice and splice- and chafes the sand piper's tracks. My oily plate now glistens Oysters slid down my throat. Rose Ann Barnhill

His silked hair reflects his smooth gestures A British accent mixed with a Maryland drawl Clouds "Your crabcakes, ma'am." "And your draft and clams, sir." White horses stamp "And 'ere's a bisque fer you, m'boy." Above trees. A puppy frowns, It's his lunch, too As the wind changes directions. He sips beers with his crones in the back, An albino bass swims He laughs and guffaws Through its blue home. Spreads his peg leg to the opposite bench. A bird spreads its wings, The profile of a friend He dumps ice in the sink Looks away. Ruby red lobsters tumble out of the metal can Beside a sky blue wall, Jennifer Dickey An old time white-faced clock above his head, A plastic crab above the clock, He stands content. Eric Barlund

by SNOW Fletcher

19 LABYRINTH, 1984 .:1k, 30 V

Actually, he was not at fault at all. and slowly turned to walk home. He the dove's carcass. Promptly It was an accident - certainly not a was anguished to know he had slain shovelling dirt upon it, he complete- purposeful act - that he committed. the one thing which he had greatly ly covered it with earth and leaves. He was a hunter, but he truly cherished. Exhausted, he straggled Into his respected life. In no way did he in- Oppressed with the event, he hap- home and began to prepare his sup- tend murder, for the very thought pened to look into the dove's eyes per. Venturing into his garden, he disgusted him. and their gaze turned his blood to noticed several dozen blackbirds The dove was a docile creature ice. Instead of pink, they were crim- raiding the few vegetables he had with pink eyes; a long, slender, son red, like two ovals of Hellish left. Disgusted, he retrieved his gun yellow beak tinted ^ink at the cor- fire. They seemed to pierce his soul, and fired to scare them off. Shortly ners; and, a breast covered with soft to mock him with the abhorrence of after the shot, the forest was feathers. It was a creature of digni- a thousand enemies. He tried to quiettoo quiet. The hunter glanc- ty. Its coo was tranquil and comfor- squeeze thelids shutthey ed over his shoulder toward the cot- ting, never shrill or harsh like many resisted as ifglued open. He tage and horror overwhelmed him. of the birds around the hunter's pro- quickened his pace to ,,qual that of He saw the dove, Its breast bloody perty. Its tail was long, like the ex- his heart, wishing he was safe in his and Its eyes dark with the fire of travagant train of a king, but it never cottage with a warm fire In the hatred. Evil had possessed this touched the earth. The hunter found hearth and a hot cup of coffee in his creature of peace and goodness. He much delight in gazing at the dove, hand, instead of this insidious dove. stepped forward to shoot and impal- often doing so for hours, as it The bushes scraped roughly against ed his foot on a rusty nail sticking casually dined on the dried seed he him as If to prevent him from his out of an old wooden board lying on routinely threw out. destination. the ground. He yelled and cursed One blustery autumn day he load- violently, directing all his rage not ed his automatic shot gun and set "Good is tarnished by at his own folly, but at the dove, out to hunt quail and squirrel, even which was now nowhere to be seen. though both were out of season. you; you will be tar- He limped back to the cottage, The weather became p-ogressively nished as well." angry at his rotten luck and fearful worse and, likewise, did his spirits. of the admonition he had received He had decided to return home Racing homeward, the hunter earlier. Stumbling through the door, empty-handed when he suddenly sighted a small squirrel, which chat- he fell; then, struggling, he pulled flushed several quail by accident. tered at him from a nearby sapling. himself up along the wall and grabb- He took aim and pulled the trigger. Gleaming a hideous red, its eyes ed the phone receiver. Dialing his A volley of shot rang out. One of the confounded the hunter and slowed family doctor in a town twenty miles birds fell a good forty feet away and him momentarily.It opened Its away, the hunter told him who he did not move. The hur .er walked to mouth, a toothy maw, and spoke, was and what had happened to him. the creature, preparing to place it in "Good is tarnished by you; you will "Have you ever had a tetanus his knapsack. be tarnished as well! Your bullets shot?" the doctor asked. As he approached, he glanced at are useless now; you will shoot in "No!" he exclaimed. "Not since the bird; strangely enough, it did not vain!"Itsdiabolicalvoice I was a child." His head was poun- resemble a quail. Upon closer ex- permeated all the forest and struck ding, and the pain in his foot was examination he discovered he had terror Into the hunter's heart. He cruciating. He stood on his good leg slain the dove which he had ad- cursed and fled. He did not stop unlike a frightened flamingo. mired. Its beak was slightly open, tl; he was safe In his home where he "I'll be over as soon as I can. and its pink tongue lazily hung out collapsed upon his bed. Wash your wound, bandage it, and of its mouth. Its breast was gashed After some time had elapsed, the keep off of it." and bloody. hunter snatched up a shovel and "Thank you, Doctor," he said and After a while, he picked up the behind his cottage dug a hole about hung up. limp white body with his left hand three feet deep, there he deposited Trying to remain calm, he treated

20 31 his wound and bandaged itthen, hand. The wind whistled mournful- through his veins, he kicked open feeling extremely hungry, he sliced ly through the treesthe place was his door. some tomatoes, almost cutting pitch black, as there was no moon. Immediately before him, himself several times in the pro- His teeth began to chatter and his levitating six feet in the air, was that cess. The sun was quickly setting body to shiver, but not with cold. demoniac apparition he so loathed. and night noises were beginning. He strained to sae what could not Its small red mouth opened, told These noises became more be seen; he sensed something he him he was the doctor, and asked prevalent, more intense. The man could not understand. "What's why he was shooting. began to pace the floor, limping to keeping him!" he exclaimer?. Then "Liar!" the hunter cursed and and fro, constantly checking out- a fair distance away, he heard a raised his gun. "You won't ever side, anxious for any sign of the songbird trill. "Song birds never bother me again. See if I don't shoot doctor. sing at night," he thought, "unless you this time!" Eating the tomato slices, he con- something wakes them." He felt a Before he could get off a shot, the tinued his pacing, while involuntari- cold sickness envelop him. His apparition sailed at him, struck its ly rubbing his unkempt chin and breathing became erratic as the beak into his chest once, twice, and wringing his hands. He started at wind erased any remaining comfort. a third time. The last stabbed deep unexpected sounds, and his nostrils Suddenly, he spied a small, white into his heart, slashing its very fiber. flared. Still, he remained inside, not object some thirty feet away ap- The gun slipped out of his grasp as wanting to leave or stay. proaching him. As it come closer, the blood ebbed from his body and His soul vexed, he took down his he gasped in astonishment. Glow- stained his clothing. He gasped for prized hunting knife and felt the ing with an eerie phosphorescent breath, but coughed up blood in- blade. Too dull, he thought. He light, it was the dove. Those eyes- stead. His knees buckled and he began sharpening it, the scraping how malevolent they looked! Their collapsed flat upon his face. noises slicing his senses, giving cold, unwavering glare sliced Grovelling in the dirt, he tried to him some relief by distracting him through the dar c of night and numb- staunch the blood loss, but it con- from the cacophony without. ed him. He tried to speak, but could tinued to flow as if drawn out by an After the edge was again keen not; his eyes were transfixed on the invisible leech. He cursed the dove enough to slice paper, he set the spectre before him. and that he had ever cared; he hated knife down, picked up his gun, It came closer, still closer. When everything now. It was not fair for cleaned it, and re-loaded it. Then, he could clearly see its bloody him to die; he wanted to live. He opening the window a crack, he set breast, he decided to shoot. He had screamed maniacally and beat the his gun and waited, even blowing to destroy the damned thing. earth with his fist. Then, suddenly, out his only light source, the lantern Mechanically, he gripped the gun, he relaxed. His heart gave up its next to him. set his fingers on the trigger, and pain, and as he exhaled his last For minutes he sat there gazing pulled it. Bullets screamed as they breath, he saw the red eyes of the into the ominous woods, listening blasted out from the barrel, but they dove staring down at him. He knew only to the rhythm of his breathing missed their target. even in death he had no freedom and heartbeat. With the passing of Cursing like a madman, the from the dove. It would gen at him each second, he became more bit- hunter jumped out of his chair, as an eternity with those eyesthose ter. The pain in his foot proudly an- the dove's hypnotic spell was eyes! nounced itself, as did the one is his broken. Vile bitterness coursing

by Chuck Hanson

LABYRINTH, 1984 G A 4 L L E Lady In Green Dress John Arrant R Y

Male Nude Daniel Broening Jeanne John Arrant I

John's Lady John Arrant

Portrait of a French Lady Christopher Weems

Sailboating at Glen Cove Christopher Weems

, -C.,

. LABYRINTH, 1984 34 23 + Wispy Sky ler peers through the dirty, barred window of his dingy white room. His eyes frantically absorb the flight of a rusty brown sparrow as it cuts a path out and then lights upon the ledge under Wispy's window. Wispy races over and kneels down to face the sparrow in the eye. "Hey ...bird. Remember me? Didn't you used to live in that little green house on top of my roof? Yeah, Yeah ...I know it was you. You came to see me! I knew you would. I'm sorry I left you alone, but you know how these people can be. They worry too much about other people's business. If they'd just left me alone, we could all have lived together like I wanted." Wispy reaches up to wipe his frozen breath off the window and finds that the sparrow has left him. "Wait bird!I want to go with to tne painting of the exotic you!" creature. "Mr. Skyler, It's time for your "The bird." appointment." "Oh ... you like birds, do you?" Wispy leaps to his feet and is met "Yeah." in the doorway by a 275 pound nurse "What do you like about them?" bound by a white polyester "They're free." jumpsuit. "Free to do what." "Dr. Kernel is waiting." "You know." She extends her right arm into the "No, I don't." hallway to show him the way, and "Free to do whatever they want. his malnourished body moves into Free to be where they want." Wispy the hall. His hands are rigid and hesitates, "Free to fly. Look, Doc, curved inward. His feet begin to paw why all the questions? All I want to at the ground and kick out behind do is go back to my houses." him. With each step his neck juts "Houses? How many houses do outward, and his eyes squint from you have?" underneath his fine, brown hair. "I don't want to talk to you Wispy and the hurse walk side by anymore. I want to leave." side silently as the sterile, tiled cor- "All right then, but I do expect to ridor swallows them up. see you again next week. I'll be "Come in, come in. Wispy waiting for an answer. Okay?" Skyler?" "Yeah." Wispy nods and walks into the Wispy stands shaking and pale, lavish office decorated with polish- his arms clenched tight around one always said, "Oh son, it's just a ed oak furniture and tropical plants. another. bunch of nonsense. Kids don't "Dr. Kernel." The doctor extends Dr. Kernel begi ;is, "If you'd like, know what they're talking about. his hand, but Wispy doesn't return you can join the other patients in Just don't pay them any attention, the gesture. the dayroom. Maybe get to know a and do what you want to do." Wispy "Just have a seat, anywhere you'd few people around here." would just laugh, but the words like. If you'd like to lie down, well "Okay." always stayed withhim. He then, go right ahead." He withdraws "It's just down the hall to the remembers his father best in his Air. a pen fram his breast pocket and left." Force uniform, the glorious, gold begins to write on a clean note pad. They both walk to the door, and wings neatly sewn on his cap. When "So ... how are you feeling since Wispy moves back into the cold his father wasn't watching, he you've come here?" hallway. His eyes search the floor; would stand in front of the mirror1 "Fine," Wispy says, but he is he is careful not to step on any with that cap on and dream of the mesmerized by the picture hanging cracks. The childhood game had day he would fly like his father. One on the wall. become a habit. His friends used to day as Wispy had stood in front of "What are you looking at?" say, "Step on a crack, break your the mirror, his small fingers gripped Wispy raises his hand and points mother's back!" But his father tight around the outer rim of the cap

24 35 upon the turntable. Her hand shakes Shannon Boshears uncontrollably as she moves the needle arm onto the disc. She turns on the record player, and the theme from Born Free begins to play. She sings along in a scratchy voice, no better than the pair of blown speakers. "Born free, as free as the wind blows . .." She hums the words she does not know until the last note is played. She returns the record to its cover and leaves the room but not before making sure she looks at every person to see for herself that nobody is watching. Wispy's attention is immediately ( Mb. caught by the quiet chirping of a /ro'-/ bird. His eyes shift to sections of //A/W/JAI Ma the room until he spots it. A yellow 11111 parakeet is perched upon a swing inside an oval top, wire cage that is set on a simulated wood table. He Or /BIM leaps up and sprints to the other side of the room and reaches out with both arms to free the bird from Wispy's eyes had sparkled with imprisonment when he feels a the idea, but all hope for his dream violently abrupt pain across his had ended when he flunked out of chest. He falls backward but braces the Air Force Academy as a young himself by propping his elbows cadet. against the floor. A bald, middle- "Mr. Skyler? Are you okay? Did aged man sits with his wooden cane you hear me? I said it is time to take ready to strike again at the next per- your medicine!" son in reach. Wispy sits in the dayroom in a "Don't even think of trying to tweed chair set at the base of a steal my bird. Don't come near me small window where the bars grow either or I'll pop you again." out from the white, chipped paint. Wispy, still on the floor, stares The colossal woman towers over wide-eyed at the man. him and forces two flimsy paper "He wants to be free!" Wispy cups into his hands. screams. "He wants to fly!" "What's this?" Wispy asks "Why must you young people be puzzled. so anxious to get other people's "It's your medicine, as ordered by things?" the man begins. "Why the doctor." don't you just keep to yourself and "Why do I need medicine? I'm not let me sit here in peace without your sick." constant screaming about my bird. ribri "Look here, Mr. Skyler, just don't What do you know anyway?" and scenes of fighter planes ask questions, and I won't give you Wispy stands and calmly brushes flashing in his head, his father had any problems." himself off. He turns to go back to caught him. To free himself from her, he the tweed chair and dives straight "Wispy?" quickly places the pills on the back onto the cage. The bald man jumps "Dad? what are you doing of his tongue and chases them up and begins to strike Wispy home?" with water. across the shoulders and head with His father was standing in the He watches a tiny black lady the handle of his cane. Wispy fran- doorway with his eyes fixed on the enter the room. Her hair is pulled up tically works to open the door of the cap. into sponge curlers. She is wearing cage on the floor under him and free "What are you uoing?" his father a blue flower print robe and pink the parakeet. He swings it open, said. houseshoes. Under her arm she car- reaches inside and cups the body of "I was just, uh, looking at your ried a record album of the musical the bird in his left hand. He pulls his hat." hits by the Boston Pops. She wob- arm out, throws the bird upward and "Well look Wispy, my uniform bles to the corner of the room where yells "FLY!" But instead of flying, isn't something for you to play with. a small, scuffed record payer is set the bird is stopped by the curved Let's not do it again. When you get up, and she carefully pulls the handle of the cane, and it is thrown older, you can get your own wings." album from its sleeve and rests it

25 LABYRINTH, 1904 36 to the ground, wings spread open. Its head is cocked outward, and its beak is smashed. Wispy awakes in a small, canvas room with his arms wrapped around him and tied at the back. He sees a blurred Dr. Kernel on the edge of his bed. "Wispy? How do you feel?" "What happened?" "We had to take you out of the dayroom because you were distur- bing the other patients. You want to tell me about It?" "I was just trying to let the bird be free to fly. He was in a cage and he wanted out." "How do you know what he wanted?" "I just did. I know it was the right thing. Doc, can't you get me out of this place?" "Tell me Wispy, do you know why you were put here to begin with?" "I haven't really figured that out yet. I was just out one night getting another house in someone's yard is painful to I-, veak eyes. He holds and ..." his hand up tc ,gock the bright rays, "Another house? What do you and he scans the grounds of the mean?" hospital. A large, white stone wall "You know, a bird house. Anyway, with barbed wire across the top the next thing I know they're putting reminds him that he cannot leave, me in the back seat of a police car." and he shuffles through the "Do you always do this sort of manicured grass blades. He turns to thing?" look back at the place which is now "What?" his home, inspecting every brick in "Collecting bird houses from peo- it. He look upward to the roof where ple's yards." he sees the sparrow. "Well, I usually try at least every "Bird! My God! You've come night, but I only get luchy about back! Oh, I knew you wouldn't leave once a week, sometimes twice. It me alone here. I love you bird! Stay just depends on how well the house there, I want to be with you!" is built. You know, if it's on a pole, He runs over to a drainpipe con- a tree, or what have ya." nected on the side of the building, while he looks down in amazement. "How many do you have?" and he begins to climb. First, he Why did you fly away? Ijust "153. When I ran out of space on grasps the rusty metal with his wanted to touch you. Wait a minute! my roof I just kept them inside, and hands, then pulls his body up, and I wanna come!" He steps back far I always left my window open in his shaking knees bend in the enough to get a running start, gasps case I had any unexpected visitors." unstable pipe. His knuckles scrape for a breath and then thrusts his Dr. Kernel smiles and nods at against the coarse bricks, and the body forward with his legs pushing Wispy. blood from his hands runs down his at full speed. He leaps and dives In- "Good, very good. You seem to arms as he reaches for another to the air with his arms outstretch- be feeling better. I think you can be brick. "I've got to make it!" he cries. ed. His ecstatic laugh echoes given back some privileges." With the strength he has left he across the grounds of the hospital. He helps him out of his jacket of clenches his hands around the top His body lunges into the moist straps and locks, and they walk ledge and slowly lifts his body up. grass, and blood spills out from his slowly toward the door. His head begins to spin, and it mouth and trickles down from his "Would you like to go outside on throbs when he breathes in through nose. His arms are still stretched the front lawn and be outside for a his painfully dry mouth. Moving over out, and he lies prostrate on the while?" to the sparrow, he reaches his lawn. The sparrow lights beside "Yes. I'd like that." bleeding hands out to touch it. But him. It cocks its head sideways to "Good. Then go right ahead." with a quick hop it soars off the top look at Wispy, and its eyes twitch as Wispy anxiously forces open the of the roof leaving Wispy standing it turns to fly over the white walls of glass doors of the building. The sun with his arms dangling by his side the Kittyhawk Sanitorium. 37 Farewell, Mr. Van Gogh Amy Ward

The sterile, stale odor hung heavi- had restored his spirits, and who tranquilizers. He could once again ly in the air of the white, rectangular had provided friendship in the cold enjoy sleeping when he wanted to, room, a smell so familiar to Henry world of doctors and white not when he had to. He smiled to that even without opening his eyes linoleum. The door opened, and in himself thinking how nice it would he could tell which nurse had came the nurse. To his surprise, be to be home again, sitting in his checked on him during the night, however, it was not Gloria. It was in- comfortable chair in the living-room what time of day it was, and who stead a very young woman with a reading Harper's in the evenings was working the day shift. It was halo of frizzy blond hair. Standing in while Emily practices her Chopin. midmorning. He strained tolift the doorway she looked at Henry He could smell the coffee brewing eyelids over his groggy eyes. The cautiously. in the old, cozy kitchen, and he dose of tranquilizers must have "Where's Gloria?" Henry asked. couldn't wait to start working on the been more than usual, for his body "She'stransferredtoSt. rose garden out back. In all this time felt excessively rigid and weak. His Theresa's. I'm the new day nurse. he had not thought of home. Not head lay motionless on the starch- My name's Linda." once. He could barely remember ed white pillow like the centerpiece "I'm leaving today, anyway, so it what it was like to live normally. He on a white table. What had once really doesn't make any difference. could barely remember what it was been dark, curly hair was now thin, Why did Gloria leave?" like to hold Emily in his arms. That's pale gray whisps smoothed timidly "I don't know, Mr. Jordan. Pro- the first thing I'll do, he thought, over his pink head. A broad bably for a bigger salary." hold Emily and tell her how much forehead furrowed with lines loom- "No, Gloria always said that I've missed her. ed over pale eyebrows, once also money was not important to her." He opened the small closet and dark and bushy. Under the eyebrows Henry could feel the anger edging reached for his suitcase. It was dus- were large, deep-set eyes, a murky up through his body like a slowly ty and worn. He had had the same blue. They, too, had faded with age. burning flame. It offended him to luggage since college. On the side His eyes held the expression of a hear the new nurse say that about of the faded brown leather, engrav- silent wizard, his power broken by Gloria. She obviously didn't know ed in gold was, "Henry S. Jordan." the rejection. Henry focused on the her. A wave of confusion and defeat He pressed down on the clasps to picture hanging on the wall op- accompanied the anger, forcing open the suitcase and began to posite his bed. It was a reproduction Henry to turn his face away. He pack his things. He carefully laid out of a Van Gogh painting he had stared out of the window. Gloria had his blue suit and white shirt, which bought twenty years ago. It was one known that today was his last day. was a bit wrinkled, but not worth of the few possessions he had in his How could she leave without saying ironing. Too much time. He walked room. Henry and his wife, Emily, goodbye? to the sink again and looked in the had bought the print in Chicago "Yes, I'll certainly be glad to leave mirror. Running his hand over his while they were on vacation. It had this place," Henry said. face, he decided that he needed to been hanging on this wall for ten "Let me know if there's anything shave the white stubble on his chin. years, since he had come here. He I can get you." After dressing and combing his hair, remembered that time vaguely. As Reluctantly, Henry sat up, pulled he walked to his bed and retrieved he studied the picture, he realized back the pale blue blanket and lifted the small, wooden box under it. In- that he couldn't remember the name his legs out bed. The floor was cold side was $350, which he had saved of it. Imagine that, the thought Emi- under his bare feet. He walked to over the years. This money would ly would know, she was always the sink with stiff steps. His joints get him back home, back to Emily. good with names. felt immobile and hollow. The He looked about him and decided to With some effort he lifted a white, tranquilizers definitely had begun to leave behind what little he had spidery hand to the button on the affect him. One thing he knew he besides his suitcase. He opened the wall and pressed it to signal Gloria, would not miss was the blasted door, took one last look at the the day nurse, that he was awake. This was the daily routine. But today, Henry realized, would not be ordinary. Today, was his last day here. He was able to leave voluntarily. He . ..It looked refreshing and friendly, and heard the footsteps of the nurse ap- proaching and knew that he would he could barely keep from running up be saying goodbye to Gloria, who had always reminded him so much the steps to the door. of his daughter. When his wife and daughter could not bear to visit him any more, it had been Gloria who

LABYRINT'., 1984 dreary room, then one last look at five impatient minutes, a young taxi Henry said with a smile. "Is she the Van Gogh picture. He still driver drove up. The boy looked home? I'm her husband." couldn't remember the name of it. almost too young to have a driver's "Who?" He smiled, picked up the suitcase, license . "Emily. Emily Jordan. This is my and walked out. The staff all wish- "Please take me to 369 West Ash house. She lives here." ed him well and a safe trip home. Street," Henry said. "You must have the wrong ad- One of the porters would drive him "Okay, but that'll cost ya ten dress, sir. There's no one here by to the bus station. In a way, he was bucks." that name." glad that Gloria was not there after "Perfectly all right." As the car "No! You're wrong. This is my house! Please get Emily ... tell her all. drove past the college, Henry He arrived at the bus station a bit wondered if he might be able to get I've come back!" Henry looked over the woman's shoulder to see a man dazed. It had been ten years since his job back in the History he had seen the outside world. He Department. come to the door. The sun was setting, leaving a "Nick, this man is looking for felt like a stranger trapped in time. Claims he's The people looked a little different. reddish glow on the city's autumn someone named Emily. Ten years is a long time. He bought trees. He was beginning to feel anx- her husband. Do you know of a one-way ticket to NewHaven for iety as the taxi drove down Ash anyone named Jordan?" one hundred-sixty dollars.The Street toward his house. In a few "No. Look, I'm sorry, but there's woman behind the desk eyedHenry moments he would be home with no one here named Emily. And this curiously, as if she knew he had Emily. The taxi pulled over and can't be your house, either. We've been away. The bus was not crowd- stopped. been living here for eight years. ed. He was happy to be sitting by "This is it, mister." Goodbye." himself. Across the aisle a man was "Thank you," Henry said as he Henry was dumbfoundeo. He eating beer nuts and looking out of handed him a twenty dollar bill, staggered down the stairs to the the window. Henry had always "Keep the change." edge of the street. A cold wind was hated buses, but there was no other The old Victorian house looked blowing from the north. An eerie, empty, hollowness came with the way to get to New Haven. Two days the same. The porch still needed to rustling of the trees. So he wept on a Greyhoundwouldbe be painted. But it looked refreshing miserable, but bearable. At each and friendly, and he could barely helplessly, he looked up at the red stop, new passengers got on. On keep from running up the steps to sky flecked with blowing leaves. the second day almost every seat the door. The downstairs lights Everything was a twisted distortion, was occupied. He talked very little. were on. He could imagine Emily in- like the harsh brush strokes in Van One woman resembled Emily quite side fixing dinner. He let out a hap- Gogh's painting. The clouds were a bit. But unlike his wife,this py laugh as he climbed the stairs of heavy and churning. A twisting tur- woman was cold and withdrawn. the porch. He put down the suit- moil of brick-red bewilderment She wanted little to do with Henry. case, straightened his tie, and rang encompassed him in its whirling It seemed to Henry that no one the doorbell. His heart was racing, path. Henry imagined the painting and perspiration was collecting on hanging safely on the wall of his wanted to have anything to do with white-washed room. He finally anyone. his forehead. A young pregnant Finally, it was time to get off at woman opened the door. She stood remembered the name. Motionless, New Haven. He gathered up his suit- in the doorway looking at Henry. he stood on the curb and said aloud, case and umbrella and waited for a "I'm looking for Emily Jordan," "The Park of the Insane Asylum." taxi to take him home. After forty-

I Remember i miss the long, quiet days When I could count my steps And catch the leaves before they hit the ground. We played touch-football on the lawn, Our lungs full up with the cold lateautumn air, We'd run home for lunch as the church bells rang.

I miss the summers In the Keys, The sun on our backs as we reeled in the deep sea fishinglines, The old captain's hat I used to wear When I walked alone to the end of the pier, The gulls perched high on the white rocks. John Buffalo

28 Forthefunofit My bright green lopsided ball rolls Solo Recuerdo Off the artificial rubber mat tee, Down a path of crushed felt. Solo recuerdo que durante mi ninez It speeds down the covered concrete, Yo estaba sentado sobre la arena jugando, Without the skillful hold of grass. Haciendo castillos de arena Viendo como vuelalu las gaviotas It smashes into the fluorescent orange barrier Como se oculta el sol en elbrizonte With no true crack of a tree's branch, Como las olas van y vienen. No soft bounce back into the fairway. Just a metallic thonk and a carom into a tight corner. I Only Remember It's trapped against a metal wall, the artificial rough. I only remember during my boyhood, I have no nine iron to dig it out. I sat on the sand. I played, I just move it six inches, tap it in. Made castles of sand, And watched I try to talioy my score How the seagulls return With a cheap stubby pencil, How the sun sets on the horizon My scorecard slips off the oily writing stand, How the waves come and go. I snap my pencil, toss my putter, Cesar Pineda And dream of deep rough and soft bounces. Eric Barlund

Boys 12 and Under Freestyle I stand on the starting block. My arms and legs tight. I begin to shake each individually to loosen the tension. My stomach muscles remain knotted. I look down at the water. Like a flickering candleflame, phosphorescent light squiggles on the surface. The pool spills over the edges. The starter raises his gun, the crowd is hushed. "Swimmers! Take your mark!" My body mechanically bends over the starting block. "Get set!" I raise my head, "Go!" My body uncoils and fires forward. I am suspended in the air And I see only the opposite edge of the pool, I feel my body stretched stiff. '` Splash! I see cloudy images and feel the cold, cold water. Doug Griep

by Shannon Boshears and Lee Quinn 40 29 For A Happier Ending On the sr w covered crest of old Kilimanjaro In a cave by a fire as the suns slowly fading There's a leopard asleep at the feet of poor Papa.

Mr. Hemingway writes by the light of the sunset He's in Africa, Spain, or out fishing in Cuba, With the great Joe DI Maggio, whisky and water. He's writing the last ones, the saved ones he's chosen And he'll write till he's finished, come morning he'll waken And climb with the leopard up higher and colder. In the springtime they'll find them there frozen alone As the waters stream down in the waiinth of the sun He'll have died in the snow, as he should have. John Buffalo

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30 --41 Bus Rider Every day she mounts the bus And flashes her worn card, Her gleaming smile of white teeth, Four ivories separated by a golden gap.

Her lips are parched, Her eyes, a knowing brown, Her hair, a course curly black.

Two cent Safeway brown bags jostle against her shawl, As she waddles down the aisle. She sits in the same spot, She leaves at the same stop. Methodically, she snuffles slowly to the front, A tired driver yanks the unoiled door, It squeaks shut.

She smiles at me throh. 'II dusty glass. Eric Barlund

Tracks I sit on a cool concrete ledge, The tracks gleam under the clouded moon, The tar and greased rails glisten in Its beam. I play solitaire and smoke Swisher sweets By the light of my cooking Coleman lantern. Soft James Taylor tunes stroll in my head, by John Arrant I fondle thin blank copper, Pennies I plopped on the rails for charred wheels.

luiet rumble strums along the steel Jm p down, the sound of gravel at my feet. , he headlight chugs toward me, I puff on my Swishier, Rub smooth pennies in my palm, And the train rocks by. Eric Barlund

by Shannon Boshears and Lee Quinn

LABYRINTH, 1984 31 41_ takes up too much of the education. Another thing is that it is a game of organized violence, and I definitely N don't like that. Also, here students play to be the best instead of for Ns As fun. r O./ I believe that there is much more A drinking and using of drugs among Rikke Knudsen the teenagers here than in Norway. 10 s' We do have a big drug problem in white." People here seem to be Norway, but it is even bigger here. more narrow-minded; a thing is right Drugs are accepted at parties and W or wrong, nothing between. They try other places where teenagers are. It to fit the Bible to today's society is not accepted in Norway. When without realizing that it was written my friends and I came to a party for 2n00 years ago and that it must where drugs were used, we just left. A be interpreted to fit today. But it is difficult to do that here, In Norway, children start in the because then you can't go to any first grads when they are seven parties! Y years old at what we call "Children's One of the main things that School." That school is from the amazed me when I first came here I had never heard of Little Rock or first to the sixth grade. Then they was that people were driving Arkansas until e. year ago, when I start in "Teenager School" or high everywhere. Every family seems to was told thatI was going to live school, which is from the seventh to have at least two cars. I am used to there as an exchange student. My ninth grade, and then they graduate. riding the bus every day in Norway parents had heard about Little Rock 'ive have to go to school only nine because no one can drive until because of what happened at Cen- years, compared to twelve years they're 18, so the only way to get tral in 1957. Not r: people here here. After "Teenager School" most around is to ride the bus or train. know where Norway is and how it is teenagers startin Gymnasium. Norwegians are also more con- to live there. I often get questions Gymnasium is like a pre-college. In scious of saving energy and money. that I think sound stupid. "Do you order to go to the Gymnasium, a stu- People here are more polite than have can?" or "Do you know what dent has to have good grades. This in Norway. We never say "Sir" or pizza is?" In Norway, we hear about is an advantage for some people, "Madame" to our mom or dad. the U.S. everyday through the radio, but a disadvantage for others. A Neither do we use people's last T.V. and newspapers. But I didn't good thing is that students don't names as much as you do. I think it know the people were so different. have to pay to go there; it is financ- has just gone out of the language People here act, think, and behave ed through taxes. Teenagers are more or less. But we do consider it differently In many ways from what more mature in Norway than here, impolite not to introduce ourselves they do in Norway. One main reason and I think that the school is the on the telephone. When we have they are so different is because of main reason. We really have to be eaten a meal, we tell the host or the the climate. Norway has really odd serious in the ninth grade in order one that made the food "thank you." and dry weather compared to Arkan- to make our grades to get a place in Norwegian for thank you is "tusen sas. The snow arrives at the end of Gymnasium. It doesn't help that a takk." October and doesn't leave until the person's dad has a lot of money; the Radio and T.V. are also different end of April. The cold weather teenager has to do it himself. from in Norway. The government makes the people stay Inside more One thing that is different in the has a monopoly on both. That during the winter and outside dur- school is the foreign languages. In means one T.V. station sends pro- ing the summer. Unfortunately the Norway, we are required to take five grams from five in the afternoon un- summer only lasts two months, so years of English; and in eighth til about midnight. The T.V. does not the winter gets very long. I think grade, we can choose if we want have any commercials, and the pro- also that family lifeis different another language. grams they send are very bad and because of that reason. Since There are two things that I don't often very old. People don't watch f'Imilles are together so much, they like about Central. The first is that much T.V. in Norway because most- are closer in many ways. They real- Ineed a pass wherever Igo. I ly it Is news, sports, religion and ly have to learn how to put up with sometimes feellike a childin debates. The radio station broad- each other. kindergarten; nobody trusts me. In casts twenty-four hours a day. They Generally, religion is much more Norway, I could even write my own are broadcasting the same things as important to the people here than in excuses. The second thing I don't the T.V., but with a little more Norway. Here it is common to go to like is the grading system. I get five music. The radio station does not church at least once a week. In Nor- points if I do that and ten points if have any commericals either. We do way, it Is common to go once a year I do this.Participating during have advertisements in newspapers on Christmas Eve. I am amazed to classes doesn't count on my grade. and magazines, but they are not see how many young people here We don't have football teams and allowed to advertise cigarettes or look at religion as "black and cheerleaders. I think that football alcohol.

32 43 . .4, One thing that disappointed me is Norway is a member of NATO, and live In the cheapest part of the fashion in the United States. I mostly because it is so near to the town. But people in Norway are not thought that there would be Soviet Union. If there were ever to poor like some people are here. We beautiful clothes among teenagers, be a war between the USA and don't have anybody who starves or and that there would be one par- USSR, Norway would be in the mid- lives in the streets like some do ticular style or fashion. dle of it.Ithink there are more here. People here wear jeans, young and peace-thinking people in Norway There are a lot of differences bet- old. In one way, it is good to not than here in Arkansas. People here ween the USA and European coun- have one particular fashion. In many are aware of the USSR as the tries- culture,religion, and schools, we have gangs, and to be enemy, but they don't try to do language. But what really has amaz- a member of that gang, you have to anything about it. ed me is all the similarities there have a "Polo" sweater or an "Izod" Norway doesn't have many Black are. People share the same needs, shirt. and that causes problems. Not people, but we do have a lot of im- dreams, hopes, and fantasies. My everybody can afford to buy clothes migrants from Pakistan and India. experience is that there are bad as that are that expensive! We don't have many racial pro- well as nice and friendly people all The shopping malls are much big- blems, but we do have some. The over the world. I think that American ger and better here than the ones Pakistanis use the same schools, people are especially friendly and wt. have in Norway. Another thing stores, cinemas, busses, et cetera, helpful. Thanks co all of them I have you have that we don't is all of the as the white population. Most had a great year here and have learn- fastfoodrestaurants,like Pakistanis do not speak or write ed a lot. I now kr.ow that people are McD maids and Wendy's. Nor- Norwegian very well, and they don't people all over the world; in the wegians don't go out to eat as much have much education; so the basics we are all the same - we all because It is expensive. Pakistanis get the least paid Jobs have feelings and personalities.

4, fi

by Hanna Bartsch

My Summer Job Rose Ann Barnhill It was a late run. I got the portable side. With our pushing, she came the equipment and watched him fill x-ray into the truck and we left. The half the way up but fell back. After a twenty CC syringe. My stomach clock read 10:34 when we arrived, four tries we quit. Her body shivered knotted as I put the x-ray casettes but it was 10:26. Doc always kept and her eyes were wide open show- on the floor of the truck. I knew what the clock in the truck eight minutes ing their whitr `te was in shock. my part would be. fast. Setting up for the x-ray, I look- "The break 3 far up in the hip Doc looked at me. "Let's get it ed at the foal that lay motionless on to fix, Hydie," Doc said as he kneel- done," he said. the stall floor. ed beside the foal. "If she won't I got to my knees and put one "We came out to feed, and she stand up now, she never will." hand over the foal's halter and the was Just laying there on the floor," The light in the stall was dim, but other one on the top of her neck. Hydie said. "My daughter and I tried I could see Hydie's face hlanch as The needle went to fast. Doc never to get her up, but her leg must be she fought the tears coming to her missed a vein. I felt a sharp pin on broken!" eyes. the back of my neck. I knew the foal "The break is in the back left "Do what you have to do, Doc," was going into convulsions; I brac- somewhere," Doc said examining she said looking down at the foal. ed myself. Her eyes turned back and the foal. "Let's try getting her up "Put the x-ray machine back into she pawed violently at the air and again." the truck, Rose Ann." ground. Then she was still. We roiled the foal over to her right I followed him to the truck with

LABYfiihrH, 1984 33 44 Deadly Webs Shiney silver threads with a touch of gold Form geometric shapes that fade In the sun Unaware of what's to be, a moth flitters by, Captured by this unseen net, lets out a silent cry The predator darts out upon its prey, injects its toxic fluid It sucks dry its catch. A dangling shell is left behind on pollen coated twine Warning other insects: there is no passing by Paul Grundl

Barry Lake Cidney he spider was lost in I hate moths and monotony ... true, life. deep thought when he felt his din- but I also love life too much to throw He wove a new web near the ner arrive. He was perched on the it away . .. Yes, but what is life but ground, and almost immediately hub of his web when the violent jolt a risk? snared a grasshopper. Though of an insect stayed in mid-flight All the while that Cidney was Cidney had never seen such a surged through the tiny but strong discussing with himself where he creature before, he enjoyed it great- fibres of his web and awoke him should live, he was dispatching the ly.It was a delicious change of from his reverie. He reacted Instant- moth. He turned the captive with his taste. For several days, Cidney gorg- ly, heading for his prey. The insect first three pairs of legs while the ed himself on all the new and exotic struggled in vain to free itself from fourth pair pulled silk from his spin- foods. He wondered why he hadn't its silken prison before Cidney nerets and wrapped the victim tight- come down to the ground earlier. reached it. Ironically, it was this ly. While the moth still struggled, After a time Cidney began to struggling which led Cidney direct- Cidney injected it with a poison to crave companionship. He resolved ly to the insect. It was always that render it unconscious. Then he car- to look for a mature spiderette. He way with the insects of lesser in- ried it to the center of his web, found the web of a worthy prospect telligence. Invariably, they struggl- where the moth would rest, entrap- and announced his approach by ed, and Cidney found them. ped initsstraight jacket, until plucking a strand of her web. She When Cidney reached the insect Cidney was ready to eat it. played very hard to get, though. on the perimeter of his web, he saw When dinnertime arrived, Cidney Cidney became only more determin- that it was a moth. Damn it! he was not at all gleeful about his meal. ed. He presented his heartthrob thought. Another one of those dry, Reluctantly, he sank his fangs into with a fly (wrapped, of course). The sour moths. The little nourishments the comatose moth and injected a gift worked. She accepted him. I get from these wretched powderl- strong digestive enzyme which Cidney, however, did not know ings is scarcely enough to be worth dissolved the moth's innerds. Then that she was a sheet web spider and the effort it takes to subdue them Cidney drank, detesting every drop. was living with one of her kind. He and then to eat them. Oh, well, I may It was the worst moth that he had caught Cidney in the act of as well get used to eating the had yet. Cidney decided then and spidultery and a horrible battle en- tasteless things because they're there to saek out a new life. sued. Cidney came out the loser and about the only food I get way up Abandoning his old web, Cidney perceived that the couple would eat here between these two trees. But lowered himself to the ground on a him, for he had felt himself being in- why should i settle for a dry moth dragline. Immediately, he saw more jected with poison. As he passed when I could have a moist, juicy life around him than he used to see from consciousness, he felt no bug? Yes, that's what I'll do .. . I'll in a week up in his lofty home. regrets. He had enjoyed his days on go to the ground level to spin a new Another delight besides the abun- the ground. It is better, he thought, web and capture many delectable dant variety of food was the to have lived a short but full life delicacies .. . No, the ground level presence of spiderettes. Though he rather than one of monotony and is dangerous. It has many predators could see none at the moment, their moths. With that thought, Cidney and huge beasts to blunder through fragrant aroma tantalized him. He passed out of mind. my web. I'd better stay here ... but knew he would have fun In his new 34 45 The Sparrows From your window I watch the sparrows that come down through the fine gray air and eat the very birdseed we put out, together, with our hands. In my fog-breath on the glass I trace fast-fading circles our initials vanish in the breath and air we movethrough the very space which separates you from me Chad Savage pushes each of us bird -like and airborn. It all started when I formed the From your window I know where we stood R.O.W.H., the Royal Order of Wasp and tempted the birds to come down and feed Haters. This little group was com- in the air burning day-light, among the folding ofwings, posed of two of my friends, Chris both of us more solid to each other than reality. Barton and Kevin Goodwin, and me. Cautiously, we would go down into I have the urge to call you now the forests surrounding Walton and say, "come put out birdseed" Heights, and armed with cans of so that we rest our hands on theedge of the feeder Raid, water pistols, and specially together, where the birds land. constructed wasp-whackers, or Caitlin Scott wooden fly-swatters. Untold hun- dreds of the evil creatures fell prey to our merciless campaign, until the day we happened upon their strong- hold. We didn't realize what we were getting into as we quietly took out their sentries, and they had sprung a surprise attack before we could react. Forced to retreat, stung in Waiting for The Big Catch several places, we watched our hated foes swarm back to their evil There I stand colony, but we weren't about to give in the midst of the day up.It was time to call out the I wait for the big catch. "SECRET WEAPON," my Dad's I can feel him as he comes brand new water-hose. We inched I wait patiently as he nibbles. our way toward the awaiting For- tress of Doom, dragging the water He grabs my hook, hose behind us. When we were in I start to reel him in. position, Chris, back at the faucet, released the tide that was to be the What Dower he exerts. enemy's downfall. We blew away I pull him into my boat the entire nest and the majority of I notice how small a fish the enemy's troops before they I have caught standing there could get any fighters into the air. Waiting a whole day for the big catch. At least a hundred of them swooped down on Kevin and me, but we were Raphael Meadors prepared. The heggers were met by a cloud of chemically treated water and Raid, and the few who escaped this first line of defense were no match for the wasp-whackers that awaited them. After it was over, we cleaned up the battle-ground, buried the dead, and went out to celebrate our victory.

35 LABYRINTH, 1084 46 The Master of The Crowd The crowd went crazy as Townshend took the stage, He raised his arm and Fifty thousand people screamed in ecstasy. He brought It down in his patented windmill, The lights flashed, The singer screamed, The crowd screamed. Townshend bent over his guitar and Played a long Intricate solo The crowd listened Like they were at a symphony. Then he lifted his arm again, Brought It down, And the crowd went wild once more. The guitar was Townshend's Instrument. He played it like a master. Chad Savage The crowd was Townshend's instrument. He was the master. Ross Cranford

Skipping Scary and lonely 'cause everyone's in class Should I go home or stick around? Scared of the police Mother's at the office or At home when I get back. I wait for her to say something To see If she knows. There's not too many places to go Far enough away to not get caught but close enough To get back in time. If you're behind the stadium you'll never make it. During the assemblies is best. Come around the corner - O.T. and Jimmy White Shoes, theFamous Detective. Just go and sit down and wait at the washateria Or walk around and think about the class and what they'redoing. There's a tree over there where they smoke joints but I've neverbeen, I just hang around, sometimes in tile gym But Mrs. Betty threw me out one time. Some people go home and watch T.V. Got to let the time run out. Come In around through the band room door, Sit on the stairs, Maybe I'll go back In class and throw a lie But she'll throw a document. The bell's gone off, It's time to go. Watch for the teacher in the hall People ask, "Where was you?" "Man, I was skipping." 3rd Period Mrs. Jarman and Mrs. Gaddy

36 47 The DNA Molecule In My Closet This strand patterns the world, Mingled together At least a billion in a flea. the cold, wire hangers Long and coiled like a snake. multiply. It makes you, you and me, me. Jane Colclasure Brent Crawford

Old Classroom No one likes to go into that room The students walk on by as if it isn't there. Inside paint peels off the walls, Paper and pencils on the floor, Dirty desks r aed to be washed. Even the piaslic plants have withered. Mickie Hampton

by Sheltie Fletcher

LABYRINTH, 1964 37 '4 4R Movie Review: OIRTY PYTHONAND THEM HOL Y 01 A I L Eric Barlund

between the Bridgekeeper and the knights at the Bridge of Death il- lustrates the absurd dialogue of the film. The knights must answer three questions correctly or they will be shot off into total oblivic-i. Bridgekeeper: Answer me these questions three, dare the other side you see. Lancelot: Ask me the questions bridgekeeper, I am not afraid. Bridgekeeper: What is your name? Lancelot: Sir Lancelot of Camelot. Bridgekeeper: What is your quest? Like a non-sequitur in a perfectly irregular fountain, complete with Lancelot: To seek the holy grail. writtenresearch paper, Monty watery fake blood. After the knight Bridgekeeper. What...is your Python and the Holy Grailis a proclaims that this "is but a mere favorite color? refreshing twist of humor. Not a flesh wound," Arthur proceeds to Lancelot: Blue conventional slapstick, this rather cut off both of the knight's legs and Bridgekeeper. Right, off you go. is an absurdist's absurdity, mixing his other arm. The scene ends with At this point Sir Robin the imagination with British cheek for Arthur trotting past the knight, who cowardly, who has been listening in- form a stylish, no ryhme or reason looks like a rotting human tomato. tently, proclaims that "That's easy!" comedy. This non-sequitur fits and The knight screams for Arthur to and he pompously struts up to the twists the Middle Ages into a com- return because he will "bite your bridgekeeper. ical farce. knees off." Bridgekeeper: What is your Michael Palin and John Cleese, Since the Grail is a religious icon, name? as well as the rest of the crew, com- many viewers could take the film as Robin: Sir Robin of Camelot. bine to make a truly hilarious movie a sacreligious exploitation of a time Bridgekeeper. What is your ridiculing many peculiarities of the gone by. Yet, Monty Python only ex- Quest? middle ages. ploits the idea of a search for Robin: To seek the holy grail. Battle, violence, chivalry, and something so vague and theoretical Bridgekeeper: What...is the religion are just a few of the as a Holy Grail. It is as if the knights capital of Australia? elements in early English society of the era expected to find it under (Pause and a quizzical look from that Monty Python spears in jest. a bush or in a hole in the ground, Robin and then:) Pointed cynicism pervades the film. whileitwas really a religious Robin: I don't know that! Python reduces a seige on a French perception or ideal. At this point he is shot off the castle to an absurd tossing of farm This notion of the search for an bridge into the chasm of death. animals over the castle walls. This idea as opposed to a solid object is The examples of absurdity are flying menagerie is an effective pointed out in the scenes dealing endless. A killer rabbit is used to substitute for arrows; Arthur and his with the knights of Nee, and with guard the entrance to a cave. A men from Camolot flee from the the hridgekeeper. Both scenes are magician is named simply "Tim." castle to the coward's cry of "Run turning points in the search for the The end fits the film. An English Away! Run Away!" grail. bobby team bre61-43 up a battle Chivalry is portrayed as an inane The Knights of Nee, feared scene, and one of the patrolmen code of ethics having no function throughout the land, ask the defen- smashes his hand into the camera whatsoever In society. When Arthur ding knights to get them a tribute lens saying, "Awright, buddy, that's wishes to cross a bridge he Is con- which is (of all things) a shrubbery. enough." We hear a muffled groan fronted by the Black Knight. The en- After a ridiculous scene the knights from the camera man, and then suing "momentous" challenge return with the shrubbery and then black film rolls across the screen. becomes a farce. Arthur slices the are asked to cut down the entire No credits roll, but the audience is knight's arm off, and blood spurts forest with a herring. left with aching sides from this zany from his left shoulder stump like an An example of the conversation and distinctively British satire.

38 49 Movie Review: ALICEI'SRESTAURANT Leslie McKenzie "You can get anything you want shoulder length, ringleted mop of after being a litterbug!!" While such at Mice's Restaurant." hair, saggy eyes, and widely spac- sarcasm certainly elicits a laugh, it As the lyrics to the theme song ed front teeth seen through a also expresses Guthrie's disdain for proclaim, there is something for straight-line smile comprise a face the war. every viewer who watches the movie that, like a pug dog's, is so ugly, it's If any theme or moral pervaded Alice's Restaurant. It forces a guf- precious. Guthrie, with his guitar the Sixties, it is that of acceptance, faw, a tear, a shaken hand... a sub- and quiet voice, narrates adventures of allowing others to be whoever tle blend of the tragic and comic, including an arrest, Alice and Ray's and whatever they please. This moral and immoral. This film will, wedding, and a draft examination. qualityisembodiedinthe with its own peculiar style, worm its However, the movie is more than characters of both Alice and way intotheheartsofall amusing, foritis a valuable Guthrie. When Arlo is "inspected, moviegoers. representation of the turbulent detected, injected, neglected," and Although the film is, indeed, en- decade of the '60's. While the eventually rejected, by the U.S. Ar- titled Alice's Restaurant, neither the events may be somewhat manufac- my, he is placed on "Bench W" with character Alice, nor her restaurant, tured, the morals and ideals of the "mother rapers. .. father stabbers is the principal character of the plot. youth of this time permeate the plot. ... father rapers!" because of his Rather, Alice is an Earth Mother On issue over which many people criminallittering record. Within figure, holding her arms open to all, expressed views during this time seconds Guthrie is at home with forgiving any transgression, up- was, obviously, the Vietnam War, these shady characters, laughing braiding moral infractions. Alice and and Guthrie is no exception. During and smoking, and ridiculing the Ar- her boyfriend/husband (hisrole the course of the film, he is called my officers. shifts midway through) operate a for the draft, so he packs his LiketheSixties,Alice's restaurant and live in a church stee- Volkswagon bus and heads for New Restaurant reeks of drugs, free sex, ple, whose bell is rung every time York. An Army sergeant informs and defiance of authority, but unlike they consummate neir marriage. It Guthrie that, "He's our man!" after that decade, it is curiously void of is to this setting that the various Guthrie jumps up and down for violence and racial prejudice. characters gravitate in time of hard- several minutes shrieking, "I wanna Perhaps Guthrie is merely attemp- ship, happiness, or any other time kill. I wanna kill. I wanna loll! I wanting to preserve the values of this the author feels a need for a change na kill!!!" Perhaps his views are time - perhaps trying to forget the of plot. most adequately summed up as he "other half." Whatever the case, The principal character of the plot says, "You want to kr'ow if I'm moral Alice's Restaurant is a sunny, hap- is Arlo Guthrie, country music great enough to join the Army, burn py movie, designed to make the Woody Guthrie's progeny. His women, kids, houses, and villages, viewer chuckle...and think.

Chad Savage

LABYRINTH, raw 39 50 The Rocky Horror Picture Show Caitlin Scott The Rocky Horror Picture Show Time Warp", a song sung to in- starts hours before the time printed troduce the audience to the strangc in the paper. It starts in participants' and colf:riul people who inhabit the bedrooms where they paint their castle. At the first strains of music, faces with heavy make-up and pull people rush to the aisles jumping on black stockings.ItstartsIn over the seats in their excitement. grocery stores, where they buy rice The song is a rock version of the to throw during the wedding scene, square dance. The audience takes newspapers to keep themselves dry their cues from the dancers on while It's raining on screen, and screen. Everyone dances, and no decks of cards to scatter when an one is embarrassed when he steps actor shouts, "What's the big dealV on someone else. Something about To appreciate The Rocky Horror this unconventionalism of dancing Picture Show, you must participate. in a theater makes the audience The movie to a nonparticipating au- crazy. They jump up and down flail- dience is a tasteless rock spoof of ing their arms and legs until the horror movies. music goes flatlike a broken The plot, what there is of it, in- phonograph. Than, they fall to the volves a pair of conservative floor amid rice and7rtewspaper. bet rotheds, stranded at a Though exhausted, somehow they mysterious castle, who are con- pull themselves up and stumble verted to the Inhabitant's life of back to their seats to continue decadent parties and kinky sex. shouting remarks across the Taken by Itself, without rice theater. These remarks usually are showering down and without jokes which have to do with the streams of toiletpaper gliding movie. One of the standards is to across the theater when an actor shout "Superman" when an actor crashes through a bathroom, this whips off his glasses. movie is a perfect example of the The content of The Rocky Horror artlessness and decaying values of Picture Show should be overlooked. today's society. With a participating The theme is that normal people audience, the movie becomes witty. have the ability to take an ordinary The high points of The Rocky theater situation and an idiotic, Horror Picture Show come from the tasteless movie and fill it with their audience itself. Therefore, one of own vitality and humor. the most enjoyable parts is "The

Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" A Gothic Metaphor Cunevery Bolton

A story in the tradition of classic woman falling apart because she gothic horror, William Faulkner's "A cannot deal with the changing world Rose for Emily" is at the same time and its rejection of her staunch a character study of Miss Emily adherence to tradition, drilled into Grierson and an incorporation of her by her father; Faulkner uses her many of Faulkner's feelings about as an analogy for the South and its his native south into a symbolic degradation from dignifiedarh; story. Miss Emily represents a genteel into common and crass "A

40 51 1...... ,111..11.11...- Rose for Emily" is a powerful story, desolate or remote, for it is a quite, normal life is evident. By the end of both as imaginative and bone- gentle, small Southern community. the tale it is clear that the pressure chilling fiction and as a detailed However, the house of Miss Emily, to live up to her father's expecta- study of the decay of a woman and which is the setting of primary im- tions and her knowledge that she a society. portance, is indeed remote from the has failed even to live up to her By Webster's definition, the term rest of the town, not by distance but neighbor's expectations have torn "gothic," as applied to fictional by the isolation imposed on herself Miss Emily apart, shattering the fine writing, means a story with two by Miss Emily, and the run-down, line between the real and the im- components: a "desolate and decaying mansion isdesolate, aginary. Miss Emily creates for remote" setting and "macabre, holding no hope for new life or for herself a world in which she can live mysterious, or violent" incidents. In a happy end to an old one. Thus as it befitted her class. She prevents '"A Rose for Emily," the setting Faulkner's story fulfills the first of herself from being disgraced by a would not seem to be either the requirements of a gothic tale, lowly worker and claims for herself although in a less literal sense than a bridgegroom safe forever from do Frankenstein or other ar- having to fit her father's standards. chetypically gothic works. William Faulkner was deeply In addition, "A Rose for Emily" is disturbed by the crumbling of the the tale of a macabre murder, a old South, the South of gaiety and crime of horror because of the gallantry, balls and belles, caste and disparity between the murder and class. In h!s writing, he expressed its author. It is not only in this, his feelings about the betrayal of his however, that the story is a gothic native region. Miss Emily is a sym- one; Faulkner's device of letting slip bol of the decay of the Southen gen- details which lead to a climactic - try and of the South as a whole. The but not quite unexpected - end is grotesqueness of her stiff pride one of gothic vintage. Faulkner caricatures the South and its at- leads the reader to assume that the tempts to retain the old tradition character of his protagonist is ex- against the new traditions of chang- actly what the townspeople think it ing times. Miss Emily represents is, yet gradually he creates a star- the preservation of an ancient sym- tingly different picture of Miss Emi- bol of the town, its living antique of ly as he reveals the details of gentility.In the same way the strange life. The climax of discover- customs and dignity of a crumbling ing the full extent of the woman's aristocracy are preserved in the depravity is at first shocking, but South; a bit ridiculed but still awe- then acceptable as the reader inspiring, both Miss Emily and the remembers the clues which make culture she represents are still given Miss Emily's behavior allto hesitant homage by the people in foreseeable: her buying the rat her community. Historically and poison and the toilet set, the smell, sociologically, the Old South fell as the lime, and her strange love affair. Miss Emily does, swathed in it self- "A Rose for Emily" explores Emi- righteousness and in gross, hidden ly Grierson's attempts to hold onto decay; Faulkner symbolizes and, a false reality, to make her life fit the through his gallant title, salutes the suffocating and restrained pattern demise in "A Rose for Emily." set for her by her father and her This gothic tales delves into the strict society. Burdened by an life of a person forced by an inability overbearing father who drove away to adjust to change into insanity her beaux and forced her to live a and thereby symbolizes Faulkner's life of impossible aristocracy, Miss feelings about the decline of the Emily still clings to his demands South and its perversion in trying to and to the demands of convention. remain the same in the face of ma- With the death of her father, Miss jor cultural changes. "A Rose for Emily becomes a recluse. Afraid to Emily"is, on a literallevel, a live a life of her own, she lives her dramatic and gripping horror tale; father's,refusing herself her on an insightful level it is a character neighbors' company, resigning study of Emily Grierson, and on a herself rather to desperate pride and symbolic levelitis a statement dignity. When Homer Barron, the about one man's feelings toward day-working Yankee, begins to court the changes in his beloved native her, however, her hope for a more South.

LABYRINTH, 1984 41 rrooriL. ill'ir.e I

_INNIM _1111111111. AWN! __Al 4,

were just a family. The Blood Method Man: In a family even Violence in John Irving's Novels exaggerations make perfect sense." The Leslie Anne McKenzie "madness" of Irving's technique is really She took advantage of not insane at all. this opportunity to insert Workshop. As John F. Kennedy was In spite the knife again ...Oren Rath assassinated, so was Jennie Fields. of their Jacobean gruesomeness, was emptying, by As students frustrated with the Viet- some of Irving's scenarios evoke an quartfuls by gallons. He nam War blew up ROTC buildings, ineluctable snicker. With T.S. Garp's felt actually lighter on top of so did radicals disenchanted with conception, MichaelMilton's her...Hope's hair was society plan to blast the Vienna castration, and Chipper Dove's gravidwith bloodhis State Opera. stultification,Irving has created throat had fountained over However, the one novel that Irving some of the most reknowned, her. did write during the Sixties, Setting repeated, and morbidly rejoiced- Free the Bears, was noted for hav- over eventsin contemporary The books of John Irving are ing an uncanny lack of reflection of literature. As Garp says to one OT Ns permeated with gruesome American troubles in its chapters. most ardent critics who regards scenarios such as the disembowel- Henry Resnick commented in his hims a "Shithead," "...in regards ment of a man, described above, the 1969 review, "Setting Free the Bears to what's comic and what's tragic, gouging out of a child's eye, the simplyisn'ta contemporary Mrs. Poole, the world is all mixed pulverization of a radical's brain American novel. .. Apparently the up. For this reason I have never with a Louisville slugger, the am- author's American identity and sen- understood why 'serious' and 'fun- putation of a man's penis, the rapes sibility is missing." The events of ny' are thought to be opposites." 1 of multiple females, and the decade apparently had little or Hence, through bizarre violent miscellaneous other atrocities; in no effect on Irving's writing; hence, acts, Irving creates a "serious" and fact, Irving's attraction-revulsion for Maynihan's theorylosesits "funny" world. Even in the most such bloodspill is perhaps the most plausibility. pitiful moments resides an element salient feature of his novels. His A more convincing interpretation of parody, such as Jenny Field's books, primarily The World Accor- is offered by Richard Blake and funeral. In spite of the fact that Garp ding to Garp and The Hotel New Margaret Drahble, who assert that is Jenny's son, he is not allowed to Hampshire, ars filled with this ele- Irving's works characterize, not the attend her feminist funeral because ment of gore,Irving's most- America of the past, but the of his gender. At the service he denounced, least-understood America of the present. His world is must present himself in drag dress- literary device. While some critics grim and unfeeling, a series of ed in a turquoise jumpsuit with feel that Irving writes his grotes- hotels from which people come and falsies. Irving's comedy may lead queries merely as an' expression of go without ever caring who is in the the reader to wonder at times if Irv- the American life or as a form of next room. Bleak people live without ing's sense of humor is offkey, but sick humor, he is actually making a values; Frank claims religion is a the words of Charles Nicol, it is statement about the temporality of form of taxiCarmy, and just when "precisely this harmonizing of human life. John seeminglyfindsSusie bizarre accidents with an authorial Critic Judith Moynihan has loveable, he costumes her as a bear assurance that everything will come theorized that Irving's fascination once again, making Berry's love out all right (that) is Irving's most with the maimed and murdered may seem somewhat kinky.Further- distinctive music." In spite of the be a reflection of the period h more, the real world is just as crazy, untimely deaths of Mother, Egg, which he formed the preponderance as full of zealotry, extremism, Iowa Bob, Jenny, and Walt, the of his ideas concerning writing: the murder, lust, and laughter, so that Berry and Garp families will carry turbulent Sixtlds, the years during the reader ceases questioning Irv- on, alongside a good smart bear. which he attended college, lived in ing's legitimacy. John Berry writes, On the other hand, Irving's Vienna, and participatedIn the "To each other we were as normal violence is not merely funny, for If University of Iowa's Writer's and nice as the smell of bread, we it were, it would be a rather cheap

42 53 ..-

fr _. ff_ Ada&_MIL joke s gang bang is rarely laughable. , The blood and guts may be the final product presented in the novel, but as Berry says, "It is never the ends that matterit is only the means that matter ...The means is by Darryl Thacker everything." The train of thought that produces the violenceis everything. Irving uses random an- nihilism as the manifestation of his axiom regarding the fragile condi- tion of life. laughter is a genus Irving's imagination becomes in- of sympathy. tmerted, looking past political ten- Irving's characters sion and conflict to the anxieties of exhibit a humor founded personal behavior. Irving reminds us upon the sad awareness that life is ly the world according to everyone. of the most concretely human risky, that loss is inevitable, death, Once Irving has explicated his themes of obligation and sacrifice, omnipresent. Garp says, "We are all theme through the lives of his devotion and obsession, care and terminal cases." This sense of .;naracters, the violence vanishes, Indifference. It is these themes that death lurking around the corner as leaving a somewhat serene, some- make his books true in spite of their Sorrow or the Under Toad shows in what commonplace, somewhat bor- Imaginative occurrences. Irving, like Irving's works, and dominates them; ing world. Garp is dead, his son a Garp, "was an excessive man. He accidents, bad luck, and open win- photographer, his daughter a cancer made everything baroque, he believ- dows lurk everywhere. The Garp- researcher, Win Berry Is blind in an ed in exaggeration; his fiction was Berry philosophy is basic stuff: you illusory hotel, his son a successful also extremist. But the truth in fic- must live willfully, purposefully, and agent, his daughter a pregnant tion has absolutely nothing to do watchfully, for if you aren't dead, movie star. ..and, as Frank would with the verity of facts and you're alive. Or as the Berry family say, "It doesn't matter." The violent, everything to do with feasibility of believed: dramatic conflict is over, and Irv- emotions. As Jilisy Sloper says, "A ing's characters live a Gatsby ex- "There are no happy endings." book feels true when it feels true. istence, a tacit balance of sorrow ..A book's true when you can say, "Right!" cried Iowa Bob... and hope. 'Yeah! That's just how damn people Death is horrible, final, and fre- In concluding his books in this behave all the time!' Then you know quently premature," Coach Bob manner, Irving construes a fairy tale It's true." Irving literally mirrors the declared. that entangles the reader in his web real world, ifin a several-times- "So what?" my father said. of fiction and, as Pearl Bell ex- removed sort of way. "Right!" cried Iowa Bob. presses, thrusts him into a world im- The juxtaposition of truth and "That's the point; so what?" agined "so personally that the fic- metaphorparticularly real sex and Thus the family maxim was tionis as vivid as his personal mock sex, real violence and mock that an unhappy ending did not memories," and releases him feel- violenceIs one of Irving's chief undermine a rich and energetic ing refreshed and strengthened. fascinations. As Eric Korn points life. This was based on the belief Readers want to be thusly entangl- out, Screaming Annie's fake that there were no happy ed. We pretend to be appalled at his orgasms are factual, and the endings. vulgarity, fanaticism, and violence, ludicrous Ellen Jamesians can and Irvin's aim is to alter our perception but secretly we revel in it. Porhaps will kill. Irving shows that mockery oflife's demonic undertoad, as a result of high technology, as can heal as Franny exorcises her because we don't know exactly Naisbitt says, perhaps as a product rape by subjecting the chief those points at which suddenly, in- of inhibitions and repressions, as perpetrator to an hysterically explicably, any one of us might be Frued theorizes, perhaps as an ex- sinister masquerade. But it can also sucked down. Charles Nicol says pression of our absurd world, as murder, as he eloquently that in using fantastic violence as lonesco writes, we are thirsty for demonstrates with the revolu- comedy in "a formal dance around good fiction, for truly original inven- tionaries. The implicit message is the edge of a deep wed [of death]," tion, to help us cope with a hard, un- that horror and joy are instrinsical- Irving is able to put the ordinary fair world. And most, if not all, of us ly joined, that comedy and death are world behind,like a burlesque hope that John Irving helps us with Siamese twins. When tragic and Tempest, and weave a tapestry true, this by writing for mans grossly unjust events occur, Irving if not so much in proportions and monthsperhaps four hundred and Insists on laughter, for to him, hues, in meanings. His world is real- sixty-four.

YRINTH, 1984 43

(el 54 In Memory of Roosevelt Thompson

1980 graduate of Little Rock Central High School, Roosevelt L. Thompson, winner of numerous state and national awards, a Rhodes Scholar and the 81-82 president of Yale's Calhoun College, was killed Thursday, March 22 in a car accident on the New Jersey Turnpike just outside of Newark.

March 22, 1984

Roosevelt Thompson died today, A random victim alone in Newark, His skull crushed, he was D.O.A. The man v.,i;o might have saved us 1 Today lies beyond our disbelief, The gentle genius, the Rhodes scholar, Denied his summer, denied his harvest, At twenty-two, betrayed.

Today spring is already old. Kay Fish

, ....c...

4 ,/ C'-C --' .... & f 6 / c by Nancy Lee Wilson Icarus Falling

44 55 -

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