THE APPRENTICE WRITER Volume 32 $3 APPRENTICE WRITER : 1 learned by working on one or more of the four magazines the Susquehanna Writers EDITOR: Introduction Institute publishes each year. If you are Gary Fincke Labor Day at Welcome. The Apprentice Writer an- interested in learning more about the Cre- nually features the best writing and ative Writing major and progams related to ASSOCIATE EDITORS the Lake House photographs from 4,000 entries we re- writing sponsored by the Writers Institute, : Elle Wallace ceive each year from secondary schools Sarah Davis, Emma McClelland, see the back page for a summary or go to HUMMELSTOWN, PA throughout the United States. Every susqu.edu/writers for details. Amanda Miceli, Jenna Rhodes Advanced Writers Workshops September we send copies printed as Mom has the potato salad out a public service by The Daily Item in Send material to be considered for next PRODUCTION EDITOR: Each summer, the Writers Institute offers the one-week on the counter in the blue bowl Sunbury, PA to nearly 3,500 schools. year’s issue to [email protected]. For Kelsey Hails Advanced Writers Workshops for High School Students. Where’s Dad? full submission guidelines, please visit Jennie wants to know Susquehanna’s Creative Writing susqu.edu/academics/10602.asp. Please be The 2015 Summer Workshops will take place in late June or major now enrolls 165 undergraduate sure to include your name and address on Special thanks to early July. Participants live on campus and concentrate on fic- On the deck at the grill, lost in a plume of white smoke students. Our program in Editing and each page. The deadline for submissions is Codie Nevil Sauers tion, poetry, and creative nonfiction. turning charred burgers Publishing gives our majors an op- March 10, 2015. The fee of $800 (early application by April 15th) covers all Dad’s not laughing but Libby is portunity to showcase what they have costs, including room and board. It sure is funny, burnt burgers, hilarious he grumbles Go to susqu.edu/writers and click on “high school students” Table of Contents for more information and an electronic application. Nana is centered in a bull’s eye of ripples in the lake PROSE 17 NEXT TO THE WINDOWSILL ~ Mariel Reilly 19 CITY KID ~ Elle Wallace like she’s hula-hooping the water 7 HER CLOSET ~ Cindy Choi 19 OUTSIDE, THERE WERE FIREFLIES ~ Robin Shafto Her sons 12 ALMOST BLUE ~ Samantha Pappas 21 HORNET’S NEST ~ Taylor Petty are all grown up now 12 TURNING ~ Lucy Silbaugh 23 CIGARETTE ~ Jessica Maddox no longer knobby-kneed boys 24 SONNET FOR THE CAPTOR ~ Brittany Crow 18 TRAFFIC LIGHTS ~ Peter Samuel Kim playing baseball in the street 20 AT SEVENTEEN ~ Cierra Ingersoll 26 GIRL-YOUTH GETS STEAMED ~ Katie Hibner and baby powder— under the lights 22 A CHAMPION’S GUIDE TO CLIMBING WHATEVER 30 LIKE CREAM ON MILK ~ Rebecca Greenberg how has it been but two years MOUNTAIN YOU WANT ~ Tina Weingroff 31 WINDOW TO THE LEFT ~ Kate Busatto For You, Anita since that smell buzzing with mayflies 24 LUK KREUNG ~ Robert Conner 31 THE MAGICIAN ~ Parisa Thepmankorn Aidan Martinez faded from my life? but now thick-browed Italian men 32 SEGMENTED ~ Zachary de Stefan 25 HIDE AND SEEK ~ Jacqueline Ose OWSON Did it leave me when we moved who have wives 34 DEAR AMERICA ~ Tiffany Spiegel T , MD 26 GRAVITY ~ Catherine Aviles from the house on Glendale Road, and children 27 PRESERVING CHESTNUTS ~ Rachael Allen 37 LOVE AND CARS ~ Greta Skagerlind I found a folded scrap of paper letting the halls fill with the scent of and office jobs 31 DETOX ~ Annalee Tai 39 SO I WANT YOU TO REMEMBER THIS ~ Taylor Petty inside the cover of your old copy must and disuse? 33 WALKING HOME ~ Katie Cooke 39 SPEECH LIKE GLITTER ~ Alicja Madloch of The Catcher in the Rye, Or did I hold my breath when Joyce and Kenny flip their kayaks 33 STEVEN’S GRANARY ~ Tiara Sharma 40 RUST (BELT) ~ Zachary de Stefan fragile as film and crisp you began to fade on purpose with giggles 34 LETTERS ON THE FLOOR ~ Madeline Smith 41 WAITING FOR THESE 90 DAYS ~ Adia Haven as the butterfly wings like a figure in an rupturing the water’s surface 43 SYMPHONY FOR THE LOST ~ Elizabeth Merrigan 36 WORDING ~ Rachael Allen sitting framed on my desk. ancient photograph, like a flesh wound 44 A LOVE LETTER FROM OBESITY (BECAUSE YOU 38 SNAPSHOT ~ Alyson Schwartz I wish you could see those wings, like your memories and awareness, WANTED TO KNOW WHY) ~ Sarah Mughal Joyce and Kenny flip their hair 40 KEN BURNS ON THE BATTLEFIELD ~ Annika Jensen orange as tiger lilies and like my patience? 45 ELMER’S ~ Alexis Hope Lerner sending crystal drops of lake 42 THE YELLOW HOUSE ~ Sara Gramling laced with black, 45 MY HAPPY PLACE ~ Jessica Maddox 45 THE BRUSH, POUR CYBELE ~ Rebecca Greenberg What would I give soaring 46 ESUS AVES Elle Wallace gifted to me by the father 47 A LIST OF THINGS THAT RING J S ~ to breathe that scent again? as water birds 47 THINGS UNDER MY BED ~ Sarah Horner I had said didn’t love me. MORE OFTEN NOW ~ Stacey Cohen To tell myself to Libby is a Szabo photograph 47 DEAR SPERM DONOR ~ Whitney Agyeman You told me otherwise. 49 SWIRLS OF WHITE PAINT ~ Hannah Phillips hold onto it, 48 BROTHER ~ Alexis Hope Lerner You told me over the hum a pretty image of 51 CHALK DRAWINGS ~ Emily Guerra of the blood pressure monitor that fragrance of childhood, 52 LOUD ECRETS Allison Chu 48 HIPSTER FRIEND ~ Kate Busatto delinquency C S ~ that sucked at your slack skin of days when your comforter 54 MY EYES ~ Corinne Winters 51 WALKING THE DOG IN A CIRCLE SKIRT in her white bikini and your thinning muscle. was too warm to leave— 55 SEEING THE WIZARD ~ Jessica Maddox ON A DAY WITH A BREEZE ~ Robin Shafto You told me as you carefully of days when you told me with legs glistening under a hot sun 56 UNTITLED ~ Greta Skagerlind 54 ALL SHE EVER SAID ~ Alexandra Kindahl penned the numbers, the dates: that fathers could love. Mom sits with pale legs 57 IMPOSSIBLE TO FORGET ~ Mollie Walker 54 TOO CAUGHT UP ~ Samara Spiler Days when you still knew crossed 58 APPINESS S Chasity Hale 55 THE OLD CITY ~ Anneliese Feldman 4/13/11, 2:04 P.M. H I ~ what days were. 59 THE PANG ~ Alisha Cheung 56 WHY I PRAY ON MY KNEES ~ Amani Garvin systolic 142, diastolic 79. beneath the umbrellas Days when you’d wake up and 62 PRINCESSES AND SINGERS: 58 TIME SIGNATURES ~ Amelia Carter You folded the paper, tore it her face is washed in shade nearly cry because you thought NOT BASKETBALL PLAYERS ~ Alyssa Matte 58 DACTYLONOMY ~ Marissa Elias neatly at the creases, and Her ring finger 63 DEAR LOST LIMB ~ Katharine Nichols slipped it into the paperback you had woken up at home, is without a ring POETRY between Holden’s red hunting hat and Maryland was far from the Philippines. PHOTOGRAPHY and the loneliness of New York. Days when you sang She sometimes forgets 3 FOR YOU, ANITA ~ Aidan Martinez slow love songs from the 30s, to slip it back on 3 LABOR DAY AT THE LAKE HOUSE ~ Elle Wallace 6 PIPES ~ Elena Haskins I hold the scrap to my nose now, before you repeated your questions she only takes it off 4 SESTINA ~ Madeline Padner 17 UNTITLED ~ Alysha Smith almost afraid to and repeated your questions. when she’s washing the dishes 25 UNTITLED ~ Ben Knecht Before I knew what it was like 4 FEELING FOR CORNERS take another breath, she says INSIDE A SPHERE ~ Alexis Hope Lerner 32 ALLEY WAY ~ Elena Haskins because if I handle it too much, to lose you, the most important person. We play here 5 A BETTER ANSWER ~ Alexandra Kindahl 37 LISTEN ~ Samantha Moy the scent of you Before I knew what it was like 6 CLUTTER ~ Zachary de Stefan 42 UNTITLED ~ Rheannon Lovell will shake loose to hurt you, my grandmother, at the lake house 11 MIAMI ~ Katharine Nichols 46 LEAF ~ Jessica Bulkley and be lost. The acrid aroma who had become on labor day 11 THE WINTER MOON ~ Danielle Fusaro of soap, the vanilla whiff a stranger. OVER PHOTO 16 NOVEMBER 19TH ~ Alexis Beale C : Jacob Dowdy, Hubbardsville, NY of yellowing pages, dust 2 : SUSQUEHANNA UNIVERSITY APPRENTICE WRITER : 3 Sestina Feeling for Corners A Better Answer Madeline Padner Inside a Sphere Alexandra Kindahl COCKEYSVILLE, MD ORANGEVILLE, PA Alexis Hope Lerner UPPER SADDLE RIVER, NJ “Lie to me—convince me that I’ve been sick forever, and all of this will make sense when I get better.” -Amy Lee, “Breathe No More” Overwrought with the everyday worry My cousin Sandra called her ex-husband’s ex-number of accidently running twenty-three times yesterday, hoping that even once I’m going out to drive along one of the roads nearby, he tells me. You want to into you, I uncover a map his voicemail would come to life with a different tone of come along? I’ve finished Hate List and An Abundance of Katherines and Anthony Horowitz’s hello. showing how to get from point A to understanding Short Horror Stories, and the only thing left to read is a journal still seventh-eighths blank. I say, no thanks, and my father shuts the door of the hotel room behind him. I could why you’ll come back to me, the way a wave A man off the southwestern coast of Alaska returns to the shore, in a perfect summer photography.