FTER ORK Literary Magazine Spring 1988 CONCORDIA COLLEGE 0 MOORHEAD, MINNESOTA After Work Literary Magazine Concordia College Moorhead, Minnesota Spring 1988 Editors Nora Markestad Julie Anderson Susan Goplen Submission Editors Nancy Benson Robert Groven Carla Grover Fredrik Hausmann Steve Wang Sharon Zubke Art Editor Lisa Pahl Advisors Marjorie Rush James Fawbush Submissions Coordinator Elizabeth Yoder Publicity Michelle Rinke Typist Nora Markestad Special Thanks to W. Scott Olsen for his time and ideas The English and art departments for their continued support Tim Carlin for his help with the artwork 11160/SC/0388 FOREWORD During one of our meetings, our guru, Jim Fawbush, asked a question nobody could really answer: why do we write? Nobody really makes any money at it, and there's certainly no glory in staring at a stark white sheet of paper waiting for some muse to strike you with some beautifully simple, original image. But still, people write, and there is no sign that they are going to stop. During the selection process, we, the editors, were privileged to see the sides, the insides, we had never seen in people we see every day. It was these "ordinary" people who provided such a diverse body of work that every editor found something that appealed to a personal literary taste. And it was "ordinary" people whose works often moved individual editors to respond with a profound and satisfied "yeah . " The following pages show the skill and promise of artists who express themselves in traditional ways as well as those whose personal styles reveal their visions. So, why do they write? We don't know, but we want to thank them for sharing their insights with the readers of After Work. The editors Some winners in the 1988 English Department Creative Writing contest also submitted their entries to After Work. These are noted on the appropriate pages. 1 CONTENTS I Didn't Plan on Dying Today Anyway 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 Fredrik Hausmann An Mternoon in Paradise 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 Bryan Honl Under the Harvest Moon 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 • 0 0 6 Bryan Honl o Continuance in Time 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8 Mark Christopher Hansen Horizons 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0, 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 Susan Caine Good-bye 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 13 Stuart K. Iseminger A Frozen Flower in Time 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 15 Bryan Honl The jaws of Victory 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 17 Nora Markestad Grandpa 0 0 0 0 0 .. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 20 Carol Schotzko A Bath 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 o 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 o 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 21 Melinda Pribbernow - Midnight Metaphysic 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 25 Robert Groven Haikus for Heidi 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 26 Fredrik Hausmann Tucker and the Sparrow 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 28 Daniel Coates Pinata 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 030 Robert Groven .38 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 o • O 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 31 Julie A. Hanson An Eagle Always Rises (or de Tocqueville's Testament) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 32 Robert Groven Antaeus Attached 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 • 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 33 Daniel Coates 2 : In Parrot Shadows . 35 Fredrik Hausmann Structure .36 Robert Groven Rain for Who, Paul? 37 Leif Doerring Blue Eyes and Black jacket .. 42 Stuart K. Iseminger Savage Indifference 43 Stuart K. Iseminger The Battle. 45 Julie A. Hanson Transylvanian Cries .. .46 Jonna Gjevre Where Tribute is Due . .47 ' Fredrik Hausmann The Zen of an Earthly Mother .48 Bryan Honl ARTWORK Trevor Stalwicke 9 Erik Bakken . 14 Vicky Halvorson 16 Carol Schotzko .. 24 Vicky Halvorson .27 Lisa Heidecker 34 Chris Ann Walsh .. 44 cover by Kari Sue Olson 3 Fredrik Hausmann I Didn't Plan on Dying Today Anyway It's true, I didn't get out much today As a matter of fact, the only words passed my lips were "a pack of Marlboroughs, if you please" which doesn't necessarily mean it hasn't been a thoroughly exhausting day believe you me. I awoke clean shaved and just barely saw your business suit ass walking out the door, the white door, the embryotic floor me door and somehow I knew that deep underneath those tight pinstripes there lurked my last pair of clean underwear No matter, I didn't plan on dying today anyway and for fifteen minutes I thought of you and Mr. Big possibly being in the same styles which made me giggle and scratch my ribs. 4 Bryan Honl An Mternoon in Paradise Through a Maxfield Parrish scene I gaze with a sense of wonder As perfection looks my way Untouched by Vice or Sex The androgynous one sits Beyond the cloister wall Awaiting love to wrap perfection In within beauty Yet these yearning glances Turn from me in clouded pity For I am but half of the whole An apparition blown by the draft of time Whereas Perfection rooted in ideals Is all things in all Neither black nor male, white nor female Lonely now, Perfection looks elsewhere I am left Alone outside that world to find another Our symbiosis may lead to synergy or dependence And we may call ourselves one However we are still two Never one as perfection Yet, we love. 5 Bryan Honl Under the Harvest Moon Within the dark hours of twilight I awoke encased in the silken threads of her cocoon Breaking free without vibration I began to see the security of the cocoon As a spider's web within whose false securities I am bound in comfort And then I know that I shall never learn to glide Obnoxious flashing neon lights Prompt newly formed memories of the evenings chimera Like a ripple in space The door's image fluxuates to the cadence Of a nearby wanton walk Longing to be free I walk toward that apparition And into light of the harvest moon Walking in cool night air, with a death sick as a crutch Slow inhalations of warm poison vapors Like an ancient ritual of the harvest A kindred consummation of land and humanity Gathered round the flickering light of a bonfire I too feel the primordian need To express my exploits, but no I see the warm golden globe Whose azimuth changes with my every step Orbiting round my head: a reminder of My mistress's eyes to which it can't compare To the beauty and glow Of the street lamp fiery soul My personal harvest moon Coming to rest upon a relic Whose ancient writings express The mystery of love In some strange mathematical equation But I do not understand it Because the variables always change And the only thing constant is love 6 I Upon this well worn bench I rest I can feel throughout my body The seeds of winter Planted by the wind deep in my soul As my nose searches for The delicate scent of the night I yearn for a hint of explanation The harvest moon presses hard Against my heart that cries To return to its womb And so I return to begin once again In the silken threads of the secure cocoon Somehow someday in my heart I know That I will learn to glide 7 Mark Christopher Hansen Continuance in Time Blooming Flowers, never die When seen by an eye.