Western Kentucky University TopSCHOLAR® Student Creative Writing 2009 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" (2009). Student Creative Writing. Paper 55. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/eng_stu_write/55 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]. Zephyrus I • , 2009 I Zephyrus ( .' A publication of the English Department of Western Kentucky Univer si ty Bowling Green, Ke ntucky Editors: Award Winners I Lacey Blankenship Heather Funk Benjamin Brooks Ryan Hunton J im Wayne Miller Poetry Award ( Andrew Burchett Jennifer Kiefer Brent Fi sk J03nna M. Busse Jessie Magee "Blue Smoke" Brandon Colvin Abigale Piper Lesley Doyle Ei leen Ryan Morgan Eklund Browning Literary Clu b Poe try Award Brittany Szabo "This is not an apology." Cover art: Shelley Bender "Dandelions" Ladies Literary Clu b Ficti on Award .' Chad Emerson "My Doppelganger" Title page art: Dalton Rowe "Hands" Wanda Gatlin Essay Award Kimberl y Reynolds <It ttl) :llwww.wku.cduJzcphyrus> "Medical Record" Zephyn lS Art Award Faculty advisor: David LeNoir Shell ey Bender "Da nde lions" Pri nting: Print Media Editor's note: OUf se lection process is based on complete anonymity. Ifan editor recognizes an author's work, he or she Writing award recipients arc chosen by the Creative Writing abstains from the decision-mak ing process for that work. sta ff of WKU; the an award is chosen by Zepl/yrus siaff. Table of Contents Eddie Rogers "God in The Bomb". ..... 53 Lacey R. Blankenshi p "Civil" ...... .. , . •.• . .. ..... 7 I J. Bige Bumett "You Owe Me an Apology" .......61 Tom Buckbcrry ;'Delphi" . .8 ( Andrew Burchett "My Lib" . .. ...9 Eddie Rogers "Ode to Silence" .. ... .. ...... 62 Brandon Haga n " Big City Bear" .......... · .12 Mandy Simpson 'Thoughts About ['Iard News on the First Day of Creative Lesley 1·lope Doyle " When [ was a tree" ........... 13 Non-Fiction" ...................64 "Poetry:" ..... 14 Sarah Spinks "Bones" ....... .... ...... 66 Morgan Eklund " Her fa ther" . · .16 Bri ttany Szabo "Swim min g Pools". ....... 68 Chad Emerson "My Doppelganger" ............. 17 Christi na Yian nakos "When [ Boardcd the F Train" ..... 70 ., Brent Fisk " Bl ue Smokc·' .. .......... 24 Brittany Szabo "This is not an apology." ......... 72 Heather Fu nk " Daydream" . .... ... 25 "Summer's End" . .............. 26 " Vignettes of Zelda Fitzgera ld" .. 27 Katie Brinton "C iao Bella" . .... · .32 Bobbie Hayse ;'Birchwood Park" .... ... ....... 33 Jessie Magee " La Dcrrota de La Nina" . ..44 " Pantoum for Your Garage" ....... 46 Kimberly Reynolds ."The Whippoorwill" . .. 48 "Medical Record" . .. .. .49 Jordan Speer "Tim Geithner" .. ...... .. 52 Civil Lacey R. Blankenship Woman, pull your tongue tight like a girdle to the ribs ( of your mouth and breathe silent for awhile ., 7 Delphi My Lih Tom Buckbcrry <Title> Andrew Burchett Along the footpaths to edification, <Author> I I came across an overl y gregarious man who violated the unwritten ( laws that govern human space. In 1953, a couple of guys named Stem and Price took a fun He extended hi s hand to me. So [put hi m in a box. liu le idea they'd had lind decided to publish it: since that day, bored On the box [ fashioned a plaque upon which I inscribed and right-brained children have had Mad Libs at their fingertips. 1've HERE RESIDES AN OVERLY GREGAR IOUS MAN , FETIERED FOR UNSO LI CITED D1SPENSATIO OF only been bored a few times in my life and there arc times when I CONGEN IALITY!! think maybe I might tend toward the left hemisphere, but I, nonethe- So I set about schooling him in the facile nature of hi s afTabil ity. less, wiled away grellt gobs of my childhood playing with Mad Ubs. I spoke to him of atrocities incalculable. Ofbencvolcll t civi lizations driven into dust by the wicked, At times, I started to sympathize with the protagonists in these Mad or infants ripped from thei r mother's bosom; the prey of blind ataxia. .' Libs: I mean, if the protagonist had an girlfriend. they Of boundless love mutated to obtuse repugnance. <adjccti\e> obviously had some communication issues, so I had to help him out I told him all this, Opened the box, and sent him down the footpath, and make surc an adjective got in that slot, right? contented with th e progress of my pedagogics. I can cmpathi£e with the guy, though. My dad was just as My gaze followed him long enollgh to see him embrace the first outlander he encountered dominecring, ifnOI morc so. As many negllti\'e things as I have to without hesitation, and I shook my head. <'1djecll\'e> <adjective> I turned away and st'TOde the footpath so purblind with knowledge say about my fo lks, 1 can thank my father for most of my preoccupa- tha t I paid no heed to the ravine. lion with language and li lerature, as it is one ofthc --.,.---,_--,-­ <few/many> My overl y gregarious pupil and hi s new comrade found me, facets of him self l hat he managed 10 instill in me. When I was young, put me in a box, and on my cenotaph inscribed HERE RESIDES AN OVERLY PEDANTIC SOPH IST maybe in second or third grade, my falher decreed that my brother WHO KNEW TOO MUCH TO KNOW HE KNEW TOO L1TILE. and I were to read at least _ hours a day. We started immediately: # the first book I read as a part of this regimen was Robert A, Heinlein's PodkaYlle of A'lars, but the first I picked out myself was -:,----;-:c;-:-. <book title> 8 9 Once I got to where I was de\'eloping my own tastcs, I spent less Wlly or another, my fricnd Emily won't find some way or another to fill <name> time on Mad Libs and more time on Piers Anthony in S lite of in the blanks of my past, prcscnt, and fut\lrc alike with that whi ch fits hcr <honor/spi te> I my fath er, who enjoyed Anthony's work, but not as much as picturc of me best? For all that, who's to say the name "Emily" showing ( Heinlein's. Ultimately, no matter how many birthdays for which I up there isn't just my fathc r filling yet another slot with what he'd prefer gOI __, and no matter how much there Illay be in to have there? Call mc suspicious, but I find it interesting that my brothcr <gift> <emotion> the famil y, I'll still owe my dad some amount of grati tudc, just as ended up majoring in Computer Sc icncc, jusl like my father in his eollcge <major> the Mad Lib 's protagonist's girlfriend wi ll always be days and I cnded up in Writing, a favorite hobby of my father's. All oflhis <.1djective> <major> in the story liS his girlfriend. despitc the hours upon hours I spent convincing my brother that our fathcr When I come to look 111 Mad Libs as aetuallives I have to wasn't, aner all, thc source of allthc wisdom in the world: he just made a wonder if, by filling in all ofthesc blanks, we aren't basically play- point of carrying a pen with him. •• ing the role of overbearing parents, ourselves. Who arc we to dccide These days, not onl y am I scparnled from my father by miles of what the protagonist's girlfriend is like'! For all that, maybe some of eounlry roads, but I'm busy with classcs and work, so I'm 5.1fe from that these blanks arc blanks fo r a rClI son: maybe the protagoni st hasn't pen, and on the occasions when it docs mCC I its mark, it writes in illegible decided what he Ihinks of his girlfricnd yet, maybe somcwhere chicken scmtch. Thcse days, when I nip forward a few pagcs, I see myself there's a slOllhal says _ __ because he can't seem to remember moving to Japan after I graduate and making a living tcaching <dog> <Japlm> <Icaching/writing> the name of that shih-Izu he had when he was a kid. On the othcr ma ybe someday I'll evcn marry _ __. However, no matter what dircc­ <nHme> hand, if life is a Mad Lib, aren't we privileged to be able to read thc tion my life takes, there's onc thing my father has cnsured: whencver I story before filling our blanks? Ifmy distant aunt decided to buy write. I' ll write in pencil. me a ___ she'd bc doing so without the context. So, excepting <gift> bad memory like minc and assuming thcy aren't blank for good rcason, I'm happy 10 fill them. The problcm is: so arc many others. Who's to say thai, one 10 " ' Vhe" I was a tree After JO {lI1ie Mackowski Lesley Hope Doyle I I was a sycamore, ( a "Plantal1l1S occidemalis," with thick ve ined leaves as wide as dinner plates whose shadows flirted across my body, making it seem as if I were twisting in the sunshine, serpent-like, oul of my skin. I was clothed in thick grey scroll s of bark that spiraled in .' upon themselves, scored with the thin signatures of squirrel claws. Birds would cry out the songs of God from my bleached branches in voices I still hea r, in languages I no longer remember.