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20th Annual Café Shapiro Anthology 2017 February 6, 2017 February 7, 2017 February 9, 2017 February 13, 2017 February 15, 2017 Selected Poems & Short Stories Café Shapiro 2017 Anthology ©2017 The authors retain all copyright interests in their respective works. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without permission of the authors. Please contact [email protected] for permission information. Original Artwork provided by: Karen Duan University of Michigan Senior, Major: Architecture; Minor: Creative Writing Image is titled Eusapia - a graphite on bristol drawing, and a 2D translation of Italo Calvino’s fantastical narrative Invisible Cities. Introduction Introduction Welcome to the 20th Annual Café Shapiro! I am excited to introduce the 20th Annual Cafe Shapiro anthology and invite you to read the following inspiring and thoughtful University of Michigan stu- dent authored poems and short stories. These works will draw you into the creative process, welcome you to think and rethink your assumptions, and connect you with the students through their individual expression. You will find a unique window into the Michigan learning experience. When Cafe Shapiro first launched twenty years ago, it was a bold experiment, a student coffee break designed as part of the University’s Year of the Hu- manities and Arts (YoHA). As the University celebrates its bicentennial, Cafe Shapiro is an example of how past innovations become a part of current cam- pus traditions. YoHA set out to explore the role of the arts and humanities in civic and community life through a variety of programs. Twenty years later, Cafe Shapiro continues its tradition of featuring undergraduate student writers nominated by their Professors to perform their works and through during so continues to demonstrate the value of the arts and humanities. The act of reading one’s work out loud is a new experience for many of our students. Throughout several evenings in February, students will gather in the Shapiro lobby and share their works. They will be joined by friends, faculty, coaches, and family, as they demonstrate the power of speaking and perform- ing. They will participate in an authentic act of creation, speaking possibility, expressing beliefs, and imagining the future. Twenty years later, Cafe Shapiro has become much more than a coffee break. It has become an annual event featuring undergraduate student writers as they think creatively and critically, reason, ask questions, and develop the skills that help them understand and participate in our world. We also publish this anthology of their work, making it available in print and through Deep Blue, the University’s institutional repository. Through this process, students have the opportunity to learn about copyright and related steps to publishing their scholarship. We thank the many librarians and library staff for making this event possible. Events such as Cafe Shapiro make visible the Library’s commitment to learn- ing. We provide a neutral and engaged space for students to practice, learn and grow their scholarship and advance their learning journey. We are enthu- siastic partners with faculty and students, looking to enable the exploration of new ideas while capturing passions and self expressions. We hope you enjoy reading the work of these talented undergraduate writers. Laurie Alexander Associate University Librarian for Learning and Teaching University Library 3 Café Shapiro 2017 Anthology Contents Introduction 3 CHLOE ALBERTA Say Something 10 SIDNEY ARRINGTON Craftsman Finds Slave Hair in 200 Year Old Chair 22 Dear America 24 Waning Crescent 25 That Ice Cream Truck Song From Your Childhood Is Actually Racist 25 ALEXIS AULEPP Consent 27 Letting Go 28 Naked 29 ERIN AYALP This Land Is Your Land erasure poem 30 Barbie coloring book erasure poem 33 ADELA BAKER Tuesday Morning 34 Protest 35 Boston 35 Habits 36 Never Fully Dressed 36 RACHEL BEGLIN holden caulfield at a bird skinning 37 territory 39 factoid 40 dick pics in the sistine chapel 40 ALISON CAMPBELL American Eulogy 47 Origin Story 49 Semantic Satiation 50 Inside Out 51 4 Contents DAPHNE CANTUBA Dream Girl 53 Naomi 60 MARIAH CARDENAS Rapunzel’s Pills 65 ALLISON CHU What About a Whale? 71 Love of Dust 72 Pens 74 Laughing/crying 75 Us solo, after Karg-Elert 76 KAREN DUAN Dual Space 79 LAURA DZUBAY Paradise 94 ANGELICA ESQUIVEL The Day Of 102 SOFIA FALL Exhibit 1 110 If You Would Take Our Bodies 111 Machinations 112 ZOYA GURM Marcie 113 PEI HAO Chinoiserie 116 Farewell to Meng Hao-Ran from Yellow Crane Tower 118 Evening Meditation 118 Morning Departure from Bai-Di 118 Lament of the Jade Stairs 119 Viewing the Waterfall at Mount Lu 119 Distracting Myself 119 Letters from Chang-Gan 120 5 Café Shapiro 2017 Anthology TOMMY HAWTHORNE Ghazal/Portrait 121 Silver 122 Sap 124 Preservation 125 Language of Pigment & Color 125 Failed Quaker Meditations on Fire 127 JEAN ANNE HENG Train 128 QUEEN 135 GRANT JAMES For Old Long Ago 136 KATHLEEN JANESCHEK Daddy, the Bastard, and the Prince 145 SCOTTY JARACZ Dead Living 157 LUC LE POTTIER 1 a.m., West Liberty 165 LILLIAN LU Tactical Retreat 167 JOSHUA MANDILK You Can’t Drown a Fish 172 PATRICK MCLINDEN This Person 180 GRACE MORRIS God In the Form of A Rabbit 184 Red 193 NADIA MOTA String Theory 194 Chiflada 195 6 Contents Somewhere Off the Pennsylvania Turnpike 195 Epilogues 196 In Which I See My Father Fearful 197 BHARAT NAIR Strange Vigilance 198 Ikerantapolous 201 KATHRYN ORWIG Star Girl and the Marble Roller 203 ELENA RAMIREZ-GORSKI Basement Song 207 Phaeton 208 Untitled 209 SHASHANK RAO Contrition 211 KEENAN REBERA Telephone-Wire Sneakers 221 A Bus Station, Sometime Before Christmas 222 Veterinary Clinic, Midsummer 223 The Rock and the Rabbit 223 Postclinic, Midsummer 224 Flagpole 225 MARIA ROBINS-SOMERVILLE Elegy for the Red Thermal Shirt, Age 5 226 Small on the Lake 227 Glimmerville 227 Settling 229 Changing the Marquee at Dusk 230 MICKAYLA STATEN Full Speed 231 NATALIE STEERS An Incomplete List of Overdue Thank Yous 234 Terms, Conditions, and Stipulations of Ghosthood 237 7 Café Shapiro 2017 Anthology EVAN VEASEY A Daydream, a Ghost 260 A Glass of Water Fell 261 Your Body 262 ELEANOR WILSON Early Morning Rain 264 Fade Out Line 265 Nick Missed: 266 The Stitch 266 All Those Curls 267 Sputtering 268 Dust and Wine 268 CLAIRE WOOD On Nights Like These 269 MINNA WYBRECHT A Broken House 276 Not Good Enough for Religion 279 SELENE YANG A Disappointed Optimist Sits Down to Watch the Blockbuster with a Thousand Rereleases 298 Pins Drop 301 Queen of Stars 302 Immigrant Math 303 ALEXA ZIELINSKI Possible Uses for a Rock 304 8 Contents 9 Café Shapiro 2017 Anthology CHLOE ALBERTA Junior Major: English Reading: Fiction I am from the small town of Portland, Michigan, and in my free time I like to read, write, and act! I love everything about the University of Michigan, especially the football. When I graduate, I hope to move to New York and pursue a career in journalism or publishing (if writing the next Great Ameri- can Novel doesn’t work out). Say Something It was a Tuesday in August, the kind of day where the dry Arizona heat made the little red hairs on Sarah’s arms threaten to burst into flames, made her skin itch and the parking lot sizzle like a frying pan. That was the day Danny died. She was supposed to be behind the counter at Pete’s, a smile plastered on her face and sweat beading up on her hairline from the oppressive heat emanating from the stone oven while customers complained and the acned high school seniors sliced pizzas at a snail’s pace. But she had called in sick because she wanted to be home when the man arrived to fix the air condi- tioning, so she was sitting in her living room in front of a fan and drinking a Coke when the phone rang. The quavering voice on the other end of the line was quiet, so at first Sarah couldn’t tell what it was saying. But Danny was a name she could hear from across a crowded room, across an entire ocean probably, and her ears honed in on its syllables. 10 CHLOE ALBERTA Something about a garbage truck. “…by the time she got there, there was nothing more to do. I’m sorry.” A pause while the owner of the voice listened over the hundreds of miles of telephone wires, probably wondering if Sarah was still on the line. “They wanted me to tell you to come stay at the house. If you want to come for the funeral.” She murmured something that must have been a satisfying response, because the caller said goodbye and hung up. Sarah stood there for a while, hand on the phone and eyes fixed on the Pete’s Pizzeria – We Deliver! magnet on the fridge. It was dark in the apart- ment, the curtains drawn to keep out the heat and the lights off to keep the energy bill down. But suddenly Sarah felt an intense need for light, her eyes cried out for it, so she opened the refrigerator door and the light clicked on, and she sunk down to the floor in front of it, feeling the artificial chill wrap around her body and settle on her skin. The last time Sarah had seen Danny had been in a big, open room with wooden walls and marble floors that bounced every word, every sigh, every scrape of pen on a legal pad back into the heavy air. They sat in the third row with the prosecutor’s other witnesses.