Zephyrus Western Kentucky University
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Western Kentucky University TopSCHOLAR® Student Creative Writing 2010 Zephyrus Western Kentucky University Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/eng_stu_write Part of the Creative Writing Commons, and the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Western Kentucky University, "Zephyrus" (2010). Student Creative Writing. Paper 54. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/eng_stu_write/54 This Magazine is brought to you for free and open access by TopSCHOLAR®. It has been accepted for inclusion in Student Creative Writing by an authorized administrator of TopSCHOLAR®. For more information, please contact [email protected]. • I Zephyrus ( 2010 •• A publication of the English Department of Western Kentucky University Bowling Green, Kentucky Editors: Award Winners Benjamin Brooks I Andrew Burchett ( Morgan Eklund Jim Wayne Miller Poetry Award Heather Funk Heather Funk Jennifer Ki efer "Congratu lat ions" Ashl ey Weatherh olt Browning Literary Club Poetry Award Mason Broadwell "Flying To Los Alamos" Cover art: Katherine Mitchell "Remember" Ann Travelstead fiction Award .' of the Ladies Litentry Club Brent Fisk <It II P :/Iwww.wku.cdu/zcph)'rus> " Park Avenue" Arl coordination: Mike Nichols Wanda Catlin Essay Award Andrew Hays "A Journ ey in Five Parts" facult)' advisor: David LeNoir Zephyrus Art Award Kati e Brin ton Printing: Prin t Media " Escape" Editor's notc: Our selection process is based on complete anonym ity. If an editor recognizes an author's work, he or she Writing award recipicnts arc chosen by the Creative Writing abstains [rom the decision· making process for that work. staff of WKU; th e art award is chosen by Zephyrlls staff. Table of Cont ents Joel Fickle untitled. ..37 Meredith Wadlington "The Cold, Revisited". ...... 7 Katherine Mitchell "By Myself' ........... , . ...38 I Eric Bateman "France" .. ...... 8 Heather Funk "Rose cOllillo". .. ... ......•...... 39 ( Cody Tucker "The Parabola to the Asymptote" ....... 9 "Querclls robliT" . .42 ··Malfunction"... .10 "Congratulations" ...... .... , ...... 44 "Abortion". ............ 12 "Out on the River Road" ..........45 Kathryn Baxter "Feeble" .. · 13 Leslie Nichols " Belvoir" .........................47 Brittany Szabo "Young Mother" . .. , ...... 14 Beth Pethalski "Nagoya" . .................... 48 Ruth Sudbeck "Cadaver" ... ....... 16 Brent Fisk " Park Avenue" .................... 49 Felicia Stinson "Awkward Teeth" ... ... 18 Julie Schuck "Nemo and the Octopus" . 53 "The Willies". ... 20 Jordan Speer and Corey Paul Jordan Embry "Oranges"........................ 54 • I Kathryn Baxter "Take Me Back' .. ... 21 Morgan Eklund "Waiting on the Scientist" .. .... 55 Eddie Rogers "What I Tell Myself Elaina Smith untitled ............. .. .. 56 About My Father". · .22 Luiggi Carlin "Vostok 7" . .. 57 Jamie Ogles "Body Language of Christ" . .... .24 "Nose Diving" ..... , • ... .. 58 Katie Brinton "Escape"........... · .26 Michael Steele "China Town" ...... • •. ..•. ..60 Hannah Morris "Thoreau and a Cup of Tea" ......... 27 Andrew Burchett "I u p" ....... 0 . , . .. ....61 ................28 Katie Brinton "Indecision". Benjamin Brooks " Horses" . 0 • •••• • 0 •••• 0 • • • •• •••••• 62 Michael L. Miller "Scenes To The Movie Alcxandm Tarrant "Father and Child" ..... .. ..... 63 I Will Never Make". · .29 Joey Taylor o'Don't Panic" ........... , .64 Carrie Law " Bum" . .. ... 30 Mason Broadwell "Watching Batman". .......65 Will Hollis "The Shoulder Poetry "Flying to Los Alamos" . ..... 66 of Eva Braun" . ...32 "Hey Neighbor" .. .33 James R. Witl "Outside" ....... ... 68 Andrew Hays "A Journey in Five Parts" . .35 Andrew Marlowe Bergman "Warning Label" .. ....... 69 T he Cold, Revisit ed Meredith Wadlington For Wendel! Beny, champion o/my Kenfllcke I ( The front porch of Charli e's Beardy Poe (often populated with poetry, close-knit strangers, travelers, coal, Jacob's old recliner and the flag of our uncommon wealth) now rests in the darkness of white and Christmas lights, staring at a wintery night in which bumed out collegiates breathe new li fe and cars suffocate under blankets or snow and uselessness. Across the street, a handful ofintemational students (and the beast who occupies Helm 101 wearing heasdphones, ., his eyes fixed on a screen of blue words and moving images) exit the bu il ding I have learned to call home. Transfixed, we know the magic of weather. He prances through the empty lot where Davy Crockett lies 6 feet under, kicking up snow and memories (just as I did on this night 15 years prior, haunting the strccts oflllcmphis with Erin and Tylcr in our quest to obtain the unrcachablc). For a moment, he, a bearded ogre ofa man, is weightless. I flick my cigarette into whiteness, its lit end dying quickly in the unforgiving blanket, and breathe Wendell's words of The Cold: "How exactly good it is to know myself in the solitude of winter." 7 T he Pa rabol:l to the Asy mptote Cody Tucker I arch toward you, Love, I my body a graceful curve. ( I long to touch you. I stretch to graze against you. I know you want it, too, for though you do not bend likewise to meet me (your body itscl fa straight line) you do not pull away (or else point yoursel f elsewhere). A Imost there now, ncarer and nearer I claw • I I draw beside you (as I myscl fam drawn). I'm deluded; I could never touch you. Still l try, my anns spreading open to embrace our X-ax is hori zon. Th ey say we're destined to do this forever into infinity (that figure eight knocked on its side). Always nearer, never touching. Eric Bateman France If that is true, a l least we do so, stretching to the ends of the page and the eanh, Together. 9 Malfunction Cody Tucker I One time When his limp body my dad was carri ed off, ( told me a story hi s co-workers stared of a co-worker fo r a moment. on th e assembly line Then who specialized the Line lurched, in putting tires impatient. on semi -trucks. There were tnlcks to be made. Twenty sandpaper years had They fi ll ed hi s spot, scratched and scarred replaced him hi s hands. like a loose sc rew. And together, On this day the workers turned back .' as hi s finger-instruments 10 their trucks, placed their reflections Another bolt imprisoned on in the bright paint Another ti re of their creations. on Another truck, he co ll apsed. The Line ground to a reluctant halt as paramedics tried to revive him, tri ed to re-hire a hearl that had reached the fifteenth day of its two-week notice. II 10 Abortion Cody Tucker No one ever thinks about the upside of it. I About the fact that these fledgling little creatures ( Will never experience the joys Of cuts and bruises and bleeding. They'll be robbed of the wonders Of vomiting And kidney stones. They'll never shed a tear Though many others will shed enough for them, Those that walked out of the womb Into some blissful happily ever after, Those that weep for these tiny losses of life .' While they swat flies and crush beetles Beneath their boots. That crowd. Those poor unborn people WiJl never enjoy sorrow, Or embarrassment, Or acne. They'll never have the privilege Of having their heart stomped on By adulterous husbands, Voluptuous wives, Or confused teenagers. But worst of all, These fledgling little creatures Might know death Before they can come to fear it. Poor things. 12 Yo ung Mother Brittany Szabo The cardinals outside seem to paint from other kids on back-alley stairs I th emselves wi th the same rose where solutions come from belt buckle color as babies' cheeks, or th eir fights endin g wi th blood spilled like paint ( youn g mother's lips while she stares on the ground and the wall s of their in the mirror until confidence buckles buildings tha t seem to reach as high her waist thin again- head hi gh, as heaven. That ni ght, mother arose she stnlts around baby's hi gh to find white petals from a rose chair while baby uses applesauce to paint noating like snow by th e n1sty stairs, hi s anns and head until mother unbuckles and for a second, she felt that same hi gh and pi cks him up like a rose she felt in love- the knee-buckle from a garden. Mother stares kind of love that follows peopl e into their at son and wonders how they got there graves and li ves on after the paint •• in th ai tiny apartment with their has chipped and the high beams buckle cl oth es drying out the window, nying high and the stairs rust away and their li ke dull nags from the stairs roses have all wilted into pieces of dry paint. covered in n1sty nai ls and chipped paint. The neighbors upstairs look like they just rose from the dead, with bodies that could buckle under the weight of a single belt buckle at any second, and the cat in their window hasn't moved for days, and their rose bush has started to grow as high as the bui lding's roof covered in spray paint graffiti from kids used to wrinkled stares 14 15 Cadaver Ruth Sudbeck Cadaver, I will cut through your ribs, with less effort I than it takes to sever the muscles of a clam. ( You say that if I watch your chest for long enough, Then, slicing through the conn ective tissue your stiff lungs wi ll stretch li ke pink balloons (careflllly!) to the twitcJ,-s!lIIdder, twitch-shudder I will pry open your chest. of your heart. Now, if I show you your lungs, Let us test your hypothesis. YO ll will see that they were less li ke balloons, and more like sea sponges in symbiosis I f I peel back the skin over your collarbone, ripping the collagen with your heart .