Poemm Emoir Story 2013
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Lavonne J. Adams poemm Number Twelve/2013 Lucy Alibar Allison Anders Bebe Barefoot Michelle Skupski Bissell emoir Erica Dawson Mary Echlin Brett Griffiths story Christine Hale Jessica Hand Nancy Scott Hanway Lisa Hartz Tara Ison Sandra Jaffe Holly Karapetkova Irene Latham Joni Lee Kathleen McClung Marlene McCurtis Pamela Mills Mary Jane Myers Leslie Pietrzyk Mary Elizabeth Pope Andrea Potos Wendy Reed Gigi Rosenberg Hilary Ross Elena Schneider 2013 Danielle Sellers Elizabeth Wade Suellen Wedmore .. PMSpoemmemoirstory 2013number twelve Copyright © 2013 by PMS poemmemoirstory PMS is a journal of women’s poetry, memoir, and short fiction published once a year. Subscriptions are $10 per year, $15 for two years, or $18 for three years; sample copies are $7. Unsolicited manuscripts of up to five poems or fifteen pages of prose are welcome during our reading period (January 1 through March 30), but must be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope for consideration. Manuscripts received at other times of the year will be returned unread. For submission guidelines, visit us at www.pms-journal.org, or send a SASE to the address below. All rights revert to the author upon publication. Reprints are permitted with appropriate acknowledgment. Address all correspondence to: PMS poemmemoirstory HB 213 1530 3rd Avenue South Birmingham, AL 35294-1260 PMS poemmemoirstory is a member of the Council of Literary Maga- zines and Presses (CLMP) and the Council of Editors of Learned Journals (CELJ). Indexed by the Humanities International Index and in Feminist Periodicals: A Current Listing of Contents, PMS poemmemoirstory is distributed to the trade by Ingram Periodicals, 1226 Heil Quaker Blvd., La Vergne, TN 37086-7000. patrons College of Arts and Sciences The University of Alabama at Birmingham The Department of English, The University of Alabama at Birmingham Margaret Harrill Robert Morris, M.D. C. Douglas Witherspoon, M.D. friends Sandra Agricola Andrew Glaze Will Miles Daniel Anderson Robert P. Glaze Dail W. Mullins Jr. Rebecca Bach Randa Graves Michael R. Payne George W. Bates Ron Guthrie Robert Lynn Penny Peter and Miriam Bellis Ward Haarbauer Lee and Pam Person Claude and Nancy Ted Haddin William Pogue Bennett John Haggerty Kieran Quinlan & Randy Blythe Richard Hague Mary Kaiser James Bonner Sang Y. Han Jim Reed F.M. Bradley Jeff Hansen Steven M. Rudd Mary Flowers Braswell Tina Harris Rusty Rushton Jim Braziel Jessica Heflin John Sartain Karen Brookshaw Patty Callahan Henry Janet Sharp Bert Brouwer Pamela Horn Danny Siegel Edwin L. Brown Jennifer Horne Juanita Sizemore Donna Burgess William Hutchings Martha Ann Stevenson Linda Casebeer Alicia K. Clavell Lanier Scott Isom Lou Suarez John E. Collins Joey Kennedy Susan Swagler Robert Collins Sue Kim Drucilla Tyler Catherine Danielou Marilyn Kurata Maria Vargas Jim L. Davidson Ruth and Edward Adam Vines Michael Davis Lamonte Daniel Vines Denise Duhamel Beverly Lebouef Larry Wharton Charles Faust Ada Long Elaine Whitaker Grace Finkel Susan Luther Jacqueline Wood Edward M. Friend III John C. Mayer John M. Yozzo Stewart Flynn James Mersmann Carol Prejean Zippert staff editor-in-chief Kerry Madden assistant editors Leah Bigbee Callie Mauldin Shelly Cato Bethany Mitchell Halley Cotton Daniel Simmons Jessica Griggs Laura Simpson Mollie Hawkins Lauren Slaughter Ashley Jones Jessica Terrell Jordan A. Mann Dan Townsend business managers Heather Martin Nakia Lee administrative assistants Shelly Cato Callie Mauldin Bethany Mitchell Jessica Terrell cover design Michael J. Alfano cover photo front: Devon’s Disco Ball by Lucy Madden-Lunsford production/printing 47 Journals, LLC contents from the Editor-in-Chief i Callie Mauldin Interview with Allison Anders, Lucy Alibar, Sandra Jaffe, and Marlene McCurtis 1 poemmemoirstory Erica Dawson I, too, sing America. 15 Lancaster and Kerr 16 Bogart and Bergman 17 Harry and Sally 18 Lavonne J. Adams Dead Cottonwood Tree 19 Lisa Hartz Early Instruction 20 Danielle Sellers After Being Called Childish by My Lover 21 After the Engagement 22 Kathleen McClung Freefall 23 Spanish Fly 24 Michelle Skupski Bissell The Barest Rib 25 Mary Echlin Snowdrops 26 Suellen Wedmore Great White Trillium 27 Brett Griffiths Detroit Suburbs, 1976 28 Joni Lee Late Summer, Missouri 30 We Are All Drowsy 31 Andrea Potos Sleep After Travel 32 Holly Karapetkova Worry 33 Irene Latham What if the Ocean Is a Myth? 34 contents… Jessica Hand To the Cross-Dressing Cuttlefish 36 Hilary Ross Every Man a Poppy 38 Owing to the Inestimable Age of the Universe, Calculating the Probability that You are my Father and I am Your Daughter is in itself Impossible, but a Probable Estimate would be 1/400,000,000,000,000,000 39 poemmemoirstory Elizabeth Wade Thirty-fifth 44 Pamela Mills Blood 53 Elena Schneider The Devil in the Details 58 Leslie Pietrzyk Joy to the World 66 Christine Hale Cooking Instruction 75 Wendy Reed Prologue: An Accidental Memoir 80 Bebe Barefoot Sparkle and Spin 82 poemmemoirstory Mary Jane Myers Galileo’s Finger 94 Gigi Rosenberg Say His Name 103 Nancy Scott Hanway Wake to Sleep 105 Tara Ison Andorra 113 Mary Elizabeth Pope The Club 126 contributors 133 FROM THE editor-in-chief Dearest Reader, From getting “bitch-slapped by Zeus” in Bebe Barefoot’s “Sparkle and Spin” about death and an unclaimed disco ball to Tara Ison’s achingly lonely trip to the country of “Andorra” to Wendy Reed’s raw “Prologue: An Accidental Memoir” to Mary Jane Myers’ private incantation with “Galileo’s Finger,” we go on journeys from Lower Alabama to Florence, Italy, to the depths of the heart in these incandescent poems, memoirs, and stories. Like the panels of a disco ball, glinting with lights, secrets, and grief, our contributors invite us into spinning narratives with lan- guage so precise and alive that the world falls away for a little while. It’s a long journey each year to create a new issue as work arrives the old-school way in big manila envelopes. In creating each new issue of poemmemoirstory every year, we read the thousand submissions that pour in between early January and April, and it’s extraordinarily too dif- ficult to choose between so many terrific submissions. We never know what the motif will be until the thematic threads start to stitch together. And so, dear reader, welcome to PMS 12, an issue that celebrates women in stories, poetry, memoir, and now in this new issue, women filmmakers. Published in Birmingham, Alabama—home of the Sidewalk Film Festival and also home to native John Badham, director of one of the greatest disco balls of all time, Saturday Night Fever—we felt it was time to begin to ask women filmmakers and screenwriters about their journeys from page to screen. Senior fiction editor, Callie Mauldin, interviewed the following women filmmakers: Lucy Alibar, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Sandy Jaffe, Our Mockingbird, Marlene McCurtis, Wednesdays in Mississippi, and Allison Anders, Mi Vida Loca, Grace of My Heart, and Strutter. These conversations capture the visions of both young and more estab- lished voices of women making films today. From living in a bathtub in Louisiana to two local Birmingham high schools, one black and one white, coming together to put on To Kill a Mockingbird to women civil rights workers in Mississippi in the 1960s to the joy and anguish of sus- taining a life as an artist, these women filmmakers explore storytelling both on and off the grid in Hollywood. Erica Dawson’s poems about filmmaking also establish cinema as a major theme in this collection. Senior poetry editor, Shelly Cato, describes a poem as a movie still, “panning in and then back out, giving PMS.. i the reader a closer look at what he might have missed, the editing that goes into writing, the cutting that is like (in older days) the strips of film lying on the editing (cutting) room floor. Good writing can give us not only the emotion that was present in the moment, but also a visual that we often don’t forget.” So many of our writers left us with visuals that we can’t forget in PMS 12 from Gigi Rosenberg’s heartbreaking, “Say His Name” about the loss of a child to a cheerleader’s grinding ambition in Mary Elizabeth Pope’s “The Club” to the late Pamela Mills’ story “Blood,” submitted by her friend, Maria Brandt, about killing sheep in South Africa to Elena Schneider’s playful language exploration in “Devil in the Details.” I must also offer a word of thanks and gratitude to my PMS staff this year. I could not do it without you. A huge thank you to my co-editors and student readers, who care so deeply about the quality work in PMS: Thank you Callie, Shelly, Dan, Daniel, Ashley, Halley, Jordan, Mollie, Jessica Griggs, Jessica Terrell, Laura, and Dr. Lauren Slaughter, too, who is both a sensitive and caring advisor in the final hour as we choose our selections. And to Bethany Mitchell, one of the most highly organized and dedicated interns to have crossed my path, I cannot say thank you enough. A big thank you to Cellina Miller for her time and help stuffing envelopes in our annual PMS mailing. Finally, PMS would not exist at all without the financial support of Dr. Peter Bellis, the UAB English Department, and all of the Patrons and Friends of the Creative Writing Program. A big thank you also goes to Dean Rebecca Bach for her commitment to the Creative Writing Program at UAB, along with Allison Crotwell and Jennifer Ellison. Many thanks to Dr. Cynthia Ryan, Dr. Jim Braziel, and Dr. Adam Vines, whose commitment and kindness support us every step of the way, whether it’s commandeering the table at AWP or suggesting fabulous interns to help out during the year.