Aura literary arts revtew• Issue 1 Ill Birmingham $6.00 Aura literary arts review VOLUME 30, ISSUE 1 SPRING/SUMMER 2004 The University of Alabama at Birmingham Office of Student Publications HUC 135 1530 3rd Ave. South Birmingham, Al35294-1150 Phone- 205.934.3216 Fax- 205.934.8050 Email - [email protected] Copyright © 1974-2004 Aura Literary Arts Review. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any way, shape or form without the express written consent of the artist in question. All rights revert to each respective artist after publica­ tion in this journal. For information on reaching an artist in regard to republica­ tion of work, feel free to contact the magazine. ISSN 0889-74 33 Aura literary arts review Editor-in-Chief Carl Chang Assistant Editor-in-Chief Boyce Nash Art and Design Editor Sharon Casady Production Advisor Christopher Giganti Editorial Assistant Krystal Kimble Faculty Advisor Tony Crunk Student Publications Advisor Amy Kilpatrick Aura Literary Arts Review is a semi-annual publication funded through the Board of Student Publications at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, as well as contributors to the magazine. Aura Literary Arts Review is staffed entirely by graduate and undergraduate students of the university. All proceeds from advertis­ ing and the sale of the magazine go to help fund both Aura and the other student publications of the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Submission Guidelines All submissions should be accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Without such, no response will be offered in regard to publication, nor will the submission be retumed. Please do not send previously published work or simul­ taneous submissions. Both will be automatically rejected. All submissions of relatively great length (short stories, essays, plays, etc.) should include a copy of the work in electronic format (preferably on floppy diskette). Submissions of poetry should not include more than five poems and should not total more than ten (10) typed, double-spaced pages. Visual artwork of all forms is accepted; slides are preferred, but not required. Please include a copy of the artist's name on each page of written work or on the back of each piece of visual artwork (if this is possible). Contact information for the artist should also be easily accessible. No submissions are accepted through e-mail. Any submissions of this fashion will be automatically deleted without consideration. Advertisin" Information 1 issue 2 issues full page $100 $175 half-page $50 $80 Please contact the staff to discuss advertising possibilities within the magazine. Sponsorship/Subscription Information Please consider supporting the magazine through patronage. We offer the follow­ ing subscription packages: Supporting Subscriber $25.00 - includes: a one-year subscription to the magazine, recognition within the magazine, and an Aura Literary Arts Review coffee mug Patron $50.00 - includes: a one-year subscription to the magazine, as well as one extra copy of each issue, recognition within the magazine, an Aura Literary Arts Review coffee mug, and a half-page ad for either the patron's business/organization or a busine organization of the patron's choice. Contact Information Aura Literary Arts Review University of Alabama at Birmingham HUC 135 1530 3m Ave. So. Birmingham, Alabama 35294 phone - (205) 934-3216 fax - (205) 934-8050 e-mail - [email protected] Table of Contents Barksdale-Maynard Prize Winners Poetry Tina Harris Cold-Eye Church 1 the juke joint spirit 2 Mozelle's Shoes 3 Fiction Catherine Roth like trees walking 4 Poems James Fahy Cyclist. 16 Chart. 17 Josh Goldman Reflection on Francis Bacon's 19 "Blood on the Floor" Tractor Shed 20 Kristi Houk 6:30A.M. 21 This Summer 22 Regan Huff Noche de los Muertos 42 For The Royal Museum 43 Darwin's Observations on 44 the Genus Homo The Third Beetle 45 Ashley Hulsey Looking for Wild Edibles 39 Camp Baptism 40 That Girl 41 Clifton D. Kelly God Will Build From the Ruins 71 Infatuation 72 After the Darkness 74 Stan Kempton A flower with no name 75 Who denied us our cultural heritage? 76 Bryan Martin radiot 77 Untitled 78 Susie Paul The Dime-Store Girl 79 Miranda Wade Estelle's Azaleas 103 Quinn White Untitled 104 Brandy Yates Of The World 105 Tendency 106 Memoir Cathy Ledbetter The Knight Watchman 46 Short Fiction M.J. Kuehner Chair man of the Board 81 Marcus Allison A Cry In The Country 107 Visual Art Carissa Andrews dice 24 Jesus 25 Brittany Armistead untitled 26 self portrait as an empty room 27 Sharon Casady untitled 23 empty 28 alone 29 untitled 70 Erin Childress untitled 30 untitled 31 Dustin Creech untitled 32 untitled 33 Christopher Dang messanger 34 waiting 35 vision 55 Ashley Freeman untitled 36 untitled 37 Stephen M. Frost untitled 87 April Garzarek The Eyes Have It 58 The Eyes Have It 59 Cheryl Gordon The Stare 56 seekers 57 Truman Grayson untitled 60 untitled 61 Beth Harding untitled 62 Brendan Helmuth Four Trunks 64 Cactus 65 Emily Hunter Flight 38 Lynn Ledbetter untitled 66 untitled 67 Nicole Marshall symbols 2 68 symbols 3 69 Lindsay Mouyal untitled 63 untitled 100 untitled 101 Ryan Murphy antiques 88 architecture studio 89 Anne Puckett Portrait of the Future Mrs. 90 stitches detail 91 Ryan Russell HASTE 92 SKATE 93 Thursday 102 Kimetha T. Schmidt Pop Alone 94 Baby with Hose 95 Stephanie R. Sides Southern Saturday 96 Amy Soverow Jeannevert 97 Marla Stone untitled 98 untitled 99 Notes on Contributors 127 Cover Design by Sharon Casady Colophon Aura Literary Arts Review is printed by Alabama Web Press in quantity of 400 copies per - rue. Paper used for text is 70# Exact Text, NaturaL Paper used for 16-page visual art inserts is 70# Cougar Opaque Text, White. The cover is printed on 80# Dull Cover, White. This issue is 144 pages in length. The editorial process is performed with QuarkXPress Passport 4.1 running on an Apple Aacintosh G4 with MacOS 9.1 operating system. All visual artwork is transferred to elec­ tronic format and toned using Adobe Photoshop 6.0. Fonts used are: Magazine Title, Barksdale-Maynard Announcement-Garamond arrow; Issue Information on Title Page-Capitals; Table of Contents Heading, Page Headers-Tribune Bold; Table of Contents text, Titles of Works, Attributions, Poem/Story Text, Colophon, Etc.-New Century Schoolbook. Images of the light bulb illuminates individuality and creativity. Recipients of the Barksdale-Maynard Awards POETRY Tina Harris FICTION Catherine Roth Barksdale-Maynard Award • 1 Tina Harris COLD-EYE CHURCH The whirl of a fan, a windy boat ride, home-made Popsicles, and wearing my bathing suit all day long cooled me during Alabama summers. But on the Sabbath I'd sit the hour my flesh chilling till my arms felt like a mannequin's or my mother's. Cold-they weren't mine. Mraid she'd burn up in the sweat of dance, in the heat of whiskey, Mom froze in church, rebuilding an icicle­ barred cage to keep her in the cool, preserving her for another week. After, outside, the sun smoothed my goose bumps, but my eyes stayed cold, ice cubes in their tray. Tina Harris THE JUKE-JOINT SPIRIT dancing to the goat-butting frenzy music siphoned from the sweat of sunset roses and the blood of dragon belly clouds we're on fire finding a new jump to our waddle while we cross the dance floor knuckle to knuckle handing around the snake that rattles our lungs in swishing smoke while our feet stomp amen again and again the bottle bottoms lifting in praise Barksdale-Maynard Award • 3 Tina Harris MOZELLE'S SHOES When I say my feet won't fill her shoes, I mean her snake-skin pumps, her patent leather loafers, her suede boots. I'm not using a metaphor to show you how I'm unable to follow my grandmother's footsteps. I'd never pretend I could stand to go deaf from scarlet fever, to go blind from a husband's slap; I couldn't make my way out of the quiet, the dark to recover sound and sight like she did. I can wear her silk blouses, her belts and rings, yet my feet aren't big enough to sport one pair of the splendid shoes that line her closet. But when you call me by her name, a name that sounds like the bounding of a gazelle, my feet feel moccasined in their own skin, and I know I can leap any fence, run any distance. 4 • Barksdale-Maynard Award Catherine Roth LIKE TREES WALKING For some people it's the moon or the sweet cool air after a summer storm. For some people it may be a child's bare feet sinking into wet sand at the water's edge. But for Vana, it is, and forever will be, Quercus Falcata, the Southern Red Oak. She didn't know it then, though. She couldn't have known it at the beginning of that week. The week when Lark came down with a cold and Mrs. Delhorn went to the Robert Redford Internet Super-Fans Convention in Utah. When Blackbird ran away, crushing Eddie's chances of being the $5,000 grand-prize winner on TV's Funniest Home Videos. The week when she, Vana, began and ended her study of dendrology, all thanks to a stack of used books, a gift from her mother-in-law. "Something to occupy your mind, dear," Mrs. Delhorn thrust the worn paperbacks at Vana in two very tan and very manicured hands. "It's the only thing that keeps me sane day after day, with only Lark to keep me company." Vana had two thoughts, accepting the books from Mrs.