Milestone: 2012 Ⅲ EAST LOS ANGELES COLLEGE milestone: 2012 EAST LOS ANGELES COLLEGE Cover Illustrations: Carol Lem Milestone Cover 2012.indd 1 11/8/12 12:28 PM milestone: 2012 EAST LOS ANGELES COLLEGE Monterey Park, California Milestone2012.indd 1 11/8/12 12:26 PM 2 East Los Angeles College milestone: 2012 Editor Emeritus Carol Lem Editors Dolores Carlos, Joan Gurfield, Alexis Solis, and assistance from Susan Suntree Selection Staff College Literary Magazine Editing Class of Spring 2010 (English 32) and a panel of editors Book Design Patricia Heckman Cover Artwork Carol Lem Student Artwork Anonymous, Chrissy Bautista, Cloria Chiao, Hyang Kim, Francine McKinney, Erika Mazariegos, Valerie Ortega, Alejandro Plata, Jairo Ramirez, Cathy C. Rincon, Lorna Sylvester, Yi Yang East Los Angeles College 1301 Avenida Cesar Chavez Monterey Park, California 91754 Milestone is published by the East Los Angeles College English Department. Material is solicited from students of the college. Milestone2012.indd 2 11/8/12 12:26 PM milestone: 2012 3 Table of Contentsi Editors’ Note . 5 Joan Gurfield Remembering Carol Lem . 6 Stanley Oropesa Tribute to Carol Lem . 7 Susan Suntree Carol Lem: A Rememberance . 8 Dario Serrano Home. 10 Kiss me . 13 Berta A. Luviano Untitled . 15 Ariana Renteria Chagrin . 16 Luis Madrigal Bury Me in my Rings . 18 These are the Streets . 19 Eileen Sarah Campos The World Behind Closed Eyes . 20 Michael Alexander Becerra The French Press. 23 Jose Hernandez Untitled . 26 Aaron C. Higareda The Blue Backpack . 27 Blue Beta Fish . 28 A Walk to Remember. 29 Lisa Higuera Male-Centered Femininity: Patriarchy and the False Transgression of Gender. 30 Ehecatl Negrete Covered in Mold. 37 Antonio Rafael Padillo Nu Energy . 39 Arthur Liu Aging. 41 Diea May Some poem I wrote a long time ago . 42 Derelict . 43 Poser . 45 Guillermo Mendoza Who Killed Kurt Cobain . 46 Raul Meza Danse Pathétique . 47 Gone . 52 Yvette Correll Your Senses . 53 Engraved . 54 Ani Nahapetyan On the River . 56 I Saw You Again After Years. 57 Joshua Castro Julio Buys a Skirt . 58 Joshua Castr0 & My Afternoon with Dominic. 79 Dominic A. Contributors’ Notes . 86 Milestone2012.indd 3 11/8/12 12:26 PM 4 East Los Angeles College Chrissy Bautista Milestone2012.indd 4 11/8/12 12:26 PM milestone: 2012 5 Editors’ Noten E ARE DELIGHTED TO PRESENT the Fall 2012 issue of WMilestone, ELAC’s literary journal. We’d like to dedicate this issue to Carol Lem, professor of English, who died recently. Carol edited this journal for many years, spending hours teaching creative writing and working with students on their pieces. A few of her colleagues have written remembrances of her included here, but there are many more colleagues and many students, whose lives were touched by her. Some of the artworks included in this issue are by Carol, who, in addition to being a wonderful poet, was a talented painter. We are very proud of the students whose work is included here. It ranges from polished stories, poetry, and one essay, to ESL works. In most cases, it is the first published work by the student. Some very famous writers, including Luis Rodriguez, got their start in Milestone. We hope that the talented students whose work is showcased here will continue to write and read literary works, fostering the tradition of wonderful, cutting-edge American literature. We are beginning to collect works for the next issue of Milestone. Get us three copies of your work, with your name, email, and phone number on each copy, and maybe your work will be published, next year. — Joan Gurfield, Dolores Carlos, and Alexis Solis Milestone2012.indd 5 11/8/12 12:26 PM 6 East Los Angeles College Remembering Carol Lemn by Joan Gurfield AROL LEM WAS A FRIEND and mentor to me, as well Cas a colleague. She came from a background similar to some of our students’. Her parents owned a small Chinese restaurant, called “Lem’s Café”. She spent many hours in her childhood in the back of the restaurant, where she learned to cook certain favorite dishes, like steamed chicken with bok choy. Later, in the 60’s, as a student at USC, she became politically active, and worked on Eugene McCarthy’s campaign. She carried those liberal political convictions throughout her life, and they informed her writing and her work with students. She was tireless in her quest for the best methods of teaching and spent many hours at her desk at ELAC, patiently working with students, and many hours talking to other teachers about methodology and about writing. Carol wrote poetry almost every day. Her house in Sierra Madre was dedicated to the things she cared about: her paintings were all over the house; she had a room where she practised sakahachi flute; her cats, Minnie and Moe, had the run of the place; and she had a huge collection of films and books. In the evenings, after dinner, before she’d watch a film, she’d sit on her balcony, sipping a glass of red wine, watching the beautiful view of sunset over the San Gabriel Valley, and coming up with images for her poems. Milestone2012.indd 6 11/8/12 12:26 PM milestone: 2012 7 Tribute to Carol Lemn by Stanley Oropesa AROL AND I WERE HIRED to teach English at ELAC thirty- Cfive years ago. Soon after, recognizing that we would both need a nudge to leave the life of teaching, which had become a second home for us both, we promised to retire at the same time, as well. She beat me by two years; she had too much in her life to tend to: her poetry, her music (the Japanese flute), her meditation, her continued involvement with her Puente students, and most of all her hunger to make her world larger while making room in it for her friends, students, and fellow poets. This fierce promise to withdraw and be content in her own world lasted a brief summer. Having retired in June, she was back at work in September, teaching a maximum load for retirees – two classes, one of which was brand new and required a mountain of preparation. This story sets us at the threshold of Carol’s mystery. She was truly a hermit, but one who loved the company of others as much as she loved her solitude. Carol’s life seemed to reflect the wisdom of the ancient Chinese sage who, when asked the meaning of wisdom, replied, “It is doing what you love and loving what you do.” Carol’s work as a teacher and poet is best summed up by the poet Suzanne Lummis, who, in reviewing her latest book of poetry, realized that her work embodied this advice and wrote, “In an age that’s produced relatively few love poems, each of Carol Lem’s seems to rise from love—of friends, teachers, the art of teaching, the art of learning, and music, the bamboo flute, the notes, the silence between them, the hush at the end.” Milestone2012.indd 7 11/8/12 12:26 PM 8 East Los Angeles College Cathy C. Rincon Carol Lem: A Remembrancen by Susan Suntree AROL WAS ALREADY KNOWN as a master teacher when I Cfirst arrived at ELAC in 1989. Many have noted how generously she shared her approach to teaching writing, developed working with the Puente Program and the Berkeley Writing Project. I was among the many teachers and students who benefited from her guidance. But my most vivid memories of Carol have to do with her devotion to poetry, to which she gave her heart, time, and attention. I remember her standing on a street corner reading her work through a bullhorn, surrounded by giant frog puppets and a throng of demonstrators. I had organized a protest of a literary event featuring writers from outside Los Angeles created by a Wall Street-backed company, Playa Vista, as part of their efforts to “green Milestone2012.indd 8 11/8/12 12:26 PM milestone: 2012 9 wash” their destruction of the Ballona Wetlands. Carol was well appreciated by the crowd for her poetry and for her bold reading. I remember when Carol was attending writing conferences, which included critiques by such notable poets as Billy Collins and Stephen Levine. I thought this took real writerly courage and was impressed by how she made use of the feedback she received. She told me that, in the process, she felt her writing deepen and open. I was moved to strengthen my own commitment to writing by watching her progress and her devotion to practice. I remember when Carol invited me to her house to show me how she organized sending poems to poetry magazines. Submitting one’s work, accepting rejections (along with acceptances—but that’s not the problem), and sending the work right back out to another publication has daunted many writers, myself included. Carol had a thoughtful and efficient method that reduced time lost to self-pity between envelopes in and envelopes out. I still refer to the notes I took recording her system. And though I’ve never been able to duplicate it, it inspires me because it represents a spirit of courage, perseverance, and devotion to practice. I remember our visits when, always over a glass of wine, Carol would cast the tarot or the rune stones. Though she was one of the most well organized people I’ve ever known, she also knew how to loosen the bonds and welcome the mysteries. Carol honored their indelible guidance both in her poetry and in her shakuhachi playing.