April 2009 Issue
*** poetry / art / screenplays / radio plays / video ***
***Be sure to check out our Contributors' Bios!
Anti Psych ......................................................................................................................................... Kristin Fialko
A:BO:UT PM ..................................................................................................................................... Amanda Chartier
Henri ................................................................................................................................................. Will Braden
Learning to Surf ................................................................................................................................ Curtis Perdue
Agreements ...................................................................................................................................... Amanda Chartier
Geese Web ....................................................................................................................................... Kristin Fialko
Icarus 4040 ....................................................................................................................................... Meena Mansur
Joe .................................................................................................................................................... kj
REM Stress ...................................................................................................................................... Amanda Chartier
that was a year ................................................................................................................................. David E. Howerton
Nautika - Character Design ...............................................................................................................Mario de Alba
Anti Det ...................................................................................................................................... Kristin Fialko
Good Morning Inbox ................................................................................................................. Amanda Chartier
Incandescence .......................................................................................................................... Marcie Crofford
Gentleman's Companion............................................................................................................ Ivan Jenson
Rhythms of Flux ........................................................................................................................ Matt Harris
I Wish it Were a Miscarriage ..................................................................................................... kj
Night on Sandy Lane ................................................................................................................ Christopher Woods
My Reality .................................................................................................................................. Siluano Williams
-_- .............................................................................................................................................. Amanda Chartier
The Ingredients of Coffee ......................................................................................................... Yanagisawa Chikara
Limited Overhead ...................................................................................................................... Rich Ryfe
Glow Bus .................................................................................................................................. Christopher Woods
Pretty Ugly Girl .......................................................................................................................... Josh Tremino
that's another why ..................................................................................................................... David E. Howerton
Landing Preparations ................................................................................................................ Kevin Holmes
Respiration ................................................................................................................................ Yanagisawa Chikara
Fall's Wind ................................................................................................................................ Andrew Scott Rotondi
God, Gabriel & Pete .................................................................................................................. Chris Paterson
A:BO:UT PM
Learning to Surf
The red board that dad stored
In the attic of poppa’s garage was old.
Thirty years it slept blanketed in dust,
Dreaming of the sun.
I held the ladder as
The board was passed down to me.
I tilted it awkwardly, unsure of how to carry
It under my 11-year-old arms.
We used a candle
To drip wax on the red board,
But it did not come to life; It did not glow
On the living room floor.
The ocean was green and blue
And yellow and purple. Waves
Were white like dry erase boards,
And I wrote poems in red.
My feet became
A defibrillator, the sea hydrated,
And the board came to life
Once held in the arms of waves.
Dad watched from the shoreline
As I rode his past into my future,
Each wave bringing me closer to shore
But each time paddling back out to sea.
poetry
Agreements
poetry
Icarus 4040
Bevy of fiber-optic lashes, ruby nano-silica glistening on burnt Nova lips
Blink. Open. Close.
the symphony of reaction
the sustenance of anticipation
whirring down the ascension tube...
I saw him:
a hologram
amalgam of wings and
electronic heart-beat
running through my database
a ghost of a ghost of a machine
Piercing through the Network
I saw you as a technophile
a meta-junkie
sucking on the shriveled teat
of the Mother-virus
Watching the tele-screens
project re-runs of our Bionic romance
40,000 years into the Future
they reach your heart-receptacle
lungs fill with the moist
particles of memory
and die on the eve of our insurrection
I've got two frequencies on you, my love
sweeter than
golden chocolate memory bars
I see where your spirit
throws itself from Skycastle windows
Bleats openly before the Twin Suns
a Clone of my desire
Casting away his drone-implanting
the featured scenesters
dressed for
Carousel.
He calls me his Nuclear Christine, his
Hali-o-tosis Baby
We reconstruct the past
with molten silver,
Android's tears
Our cyclic souls
never left childhood
this mythological
meta-hybolic fairy tale
will self-destruct the moment
our silicon eyes meet
Know that by the time this data
hits the Centrepods
we'll all be destroyed
Balls of misfired wiring collapse
a tenure of sub-hydraulic pleadings
reach only your metaphysical ears
and I'll finally know what it was like to be you,
once winter kisses ashes
One thousand years afterwards
as the space-dust collects on my soul-chip
I will still bleed polymer-liquid emotion
Still hang clouds on the holo-deck
for my metabolic mr. right
my moon-beam babe
He couldn't be programmed
to be auto- prizmatic
his particles reflect light
only when the universe inside me begins to de-collapse
reminds him of the hatred of philanthropy
The Cold Towers of the Galactic Truancy
the Paleolithic troopers who stole my heart
imprisoned my twin-soul
with the father of Doomed Migration
Icarus, I will melt your wings
to bring you back to me.
poetry
Joe
Old Joe got a job as a professional stranger.
The work was self effacing.
He would show up as someone different wherever he went.
He got good at it.
People started to feel like they had met Old Joe when he was just Joe.
They had not though.
For him it was the same day, his same head, but in a different hat.
Soon the job got to him.
It was a different day, a different head, and a different hat.
Old Joe couldn't keep track of all of that.
People started saying he was not like anyone they had ever met.
Joe took to habits because sensation was consistent.
He started shaving everything.
Old Joe was smooth.
Then his skin got hard from changing climates, personalities, and moralities.
Joe became a machine designed to smoke cigarettes.
His company lost a lot of business. The transitions were not fast enough.
There were not enough new hats for Old Joe. He took to crying by himself.
Soon the crying got so bad he did not even come in to work.
One of his neighbors heard him crying and knocked on his door.
Old Joe let his neighbor in. His neighbor said: "I seen you around man, who are you?"
Joe said: "I am not."
Neighbor: "Then...what are you?"
Joe: " I am in between jobs."
At that the neighbor left.
Joe lied down on the tile in his kitchen.
His skin was cool then, and it was a feeling. A feeling Old Joe knew better than himself.
REM Stress
Down and Out at the Scare Club
A Two Minute Comedy
CAST:
Grim Reaper (harbinger of death)
Sasquatch (aka Abominable Snowman)
Medusa (Greek witch)
Fred Krooger (horror movie star)
Interior a contemporary coffee shop. Regular folks pay no attention to our characters who are seated at a table. Reaper arrives with a tray of drinks and pastries.
Reaper: Who had the Macchiato?
Medusa: I did, with a caramel swirl…
Reaper: There’s an Americano…
Krooger: That’s me…
Reaper: And a skinny cappuccino for the Sasquatch…
Sasquatch: It’s the weight issue again. Every year it gets worse.
Reaper: And a classic latte por moi! (he sits)
Krooger: Anyway, I’m waiting there in the shadows, underneath the eve, the flashing neon sign is glinting off my knives and she walks up to the car.
Medusa: Nice.
Krooger: So I do the sound, scraping the knives down the chain link and she turns around. Y’know, lovely girl, perky face, body etc. She takes one look at me… Her eyes get all wide and she opens her mouth for the blood curdling scream… and, and the minky little weasel laughs!!
Reaper: No shit?
Krooger: One of those slow to start kind of guffaw things that turn into a high pitched kinda cackle…
Medusa: (understanding) I do one of those.
Krooger: But this girl starts shaking her head like I’m all lame and everything and then she turns around and opens the car door. I scrape the knives again and she doesn’t even turn, she just says kinda sadly, “Get lost Freddy.” Get lost? She tells me to ‘Get lost.’
Sasquatch: (unhappily) Frightening.
Reaper: What’d you do?
Krooger: What could I do? She gets in the car and drives away. I’m standing there with five bloodless knives in my hand.
A sympathetic pause.
Medusa: The other day I materialize right in front of this Wall Street banker - he takes one look at me and points to a sign on his desk. “Serpents Subject to Search,” it says.
Reaper: Search??
Medusa: It’s signed Homeland Security.
Sasquatch: Damn they’re everywhere these days!
Medusa: I said I am a Greek myth mister and don’t no Homeland Security search me!
Reaper: What’d he do?
Medusa: Pick up the damn phone and call Security!
Krooger: (sadly) It boils down to a lack of respect. I mean we’ve been intimidating, haunting, scaring the human population for what, fifteen, twenty thousand years now??
Reaper: Least that.
Krooger: And all a sudden they’re going flat on us!
Sasquatch: It’s the goddamned media I’m telling you. AND the internet! The friggin internet has gutted our whole show! On the way over here a couple ten year olds hit me with sling shots. They’re like, “Go back to the swamp, thing!” The other kid says, “We know you’re gay!”
Reaper: (shaking head) It’s just wrong. Wrong.
Medusa: I can’t stand being a has-been. What do I tell the other myths?
Krooger: What do I tell Chuckie? Frank? Hannibal?
Reaper: I show up at a guy’s house, he looks at my scythe and says: “Front and back yards, weed the garden, and water the flower pots!” I said, “I’m here to end your life.” He says, “Fifty bucks tops, take it or leave it.”
Sasquatch: (standing up) I gotto get going.
Krooger: Where to Sas?
Sasquatch: Down the SSI Office to pick up my check. Gotto pay some bills and it’s the only thing’s keeping’ me hanging on.
Medusa: Later, Sas.
Reaper: I’ll probably see you there…
Sasquatch: (to Krooger) You gonna finish your carrot cake?
Krooger: No, Sas, go ahead take it with you.
Sasquatch: Thanks Fred. You’re a pal.
He takes the carrot cake and trundles off. The others watch him go.
Reaper: (sadly) What’s happened to us? Hmm?
FADE TO BLACK
Scattered Seeds
The deceitful summer tricks the trees, roots, and animals into momentary prosperity.
Later, leaves yellow, then leap from trees in a tumbling lamentation at green's going off.
Winter pales and shrouds the gladiolas from witnessing spring's demise.
Twilight mourns the bright, babe of morn with a black cloak.
Yet the moon remains hopeful, bearing a light in hopes of a Lazarus effect.
Curious stars come out to see what foolishness the moon reflects.
Lo, the sun lays on a catafalque below the horizon, a deceptive tomb.
Meteors streak about in desperation to lend luster to the commotion.
They too burn out. Then the stars, one by one, take their candles elsewhere.
Still the moon radiates faith in the day, that it might rise like a crane in the East.
None understand this steadfast paraclete making only a muted, creamy stain in the dark.
A celestial body might stave off pending doom, but it knows the folly of fending off the gloom.
The shining adherent of the life in the skies begins to lose faith in its effort slowly.
Its luminescent desire waxes, wanes, waxes, wanes, waxes and wanes again
until it grows weary and ashamed of the time it sacrificed to resurrect the day.
A feeling of failure mars its venture out and it becomes a crestfallen crescent.
Soon the time will pass when it looks out over the soil and ducks forever into the
blackness as a tired recluse might after opening a door to sip the outside air.
With the moon hidden in the depths of the grim shroud, night falls.
On the following day the sun will not show.
Clouds will come to cry
for somehow they are
sure that the leaves
will fall whether seasons
are in transit or not
and so it rains on the
lawn of a woman's
house where she lies
dead on her couch.
Her husband will come
home with no leaves to rake
from the rain gutter because
the clouds will obscure
nature's evidence of
the season's passing
because death has
nothing to show to
him except the
unnatural and eerie
sensation a person
gets when seeing
a female body so far from
its natural element
dead a living room.
The next day he will rake leaves that have been blown about the trees while
he thinks of the way his wife's ashes scattered like so many seeds dripping
from a gardener's hand. May the sun not char them.
Multitudes
that's how the good ones grow
long hair blowing
you watch hawk circle.
Wind talks whispers
in ear
mythopoetics
older than humanity.
And then shivering
laughter spills
sealing a moment.
Swing for the Fences
By William E. Spear
Cast (in order of appearance)
1. Announcer
2. Chorus – Sings “Over There”
3. Narrator One
4. Narrator Two
5. Conductor
6. Jake Alston – Protagonist
7. Mr. Alston – Jake’s father
8. Grandfather – Mr. Alston’s father
9. President Wilson
10. Edna Alston – Jake’s mother
11. Single Voice – Sings “Over There”
Beat 1. Introduction
ANNOUNCER: (COLD) Coming up is “Swing for the Fences” starring __________ and __________. The Narrators are __________ and __________.
Beat 2. Establish year - 1914
CHORUS: (ROBUSTLY) Over there, Over there;
Send the word, Send the word over there;
That the Yanks are coming, The Yanks are coming;
The drums rum-tumming ev'rywhere;
So prepare, Say a pray'r;
Send the word, Send the word to beware;
We'll be o - - ver, we're coming o - - ver;
And we won't come back till it's over Over There.
NARRATOR ONE: From the moment Austria-Hungary’s Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, events of the First World War began to entangle Americans “Over There.” His murder, by the Serbian nationalist group known as the Black Hand, ignited a series of complex relationships.
NARRATOR TWO: Ancient treaties shaped the colliding powers. Germany and Austria-Hungary were locked in battle with Serbia, Russia, and ultimately France and Great Britain. However, America traveled along a course of neutrality set out by President Woodrow Wilson on August Nineteenth, Nineteen-fourteen.
PRESIDENT WILSON: The people of the United States are drawn from many nations, and chiefly from the nations now at war. Some of our citizens will wish one country, others another, to succeed in the momentous struggle. The United States must be impartial in thought, as well as action, so as not to be construed as having preference of one party over another.
NARRATOR TWO: Germany interpreted this as American support for the British. England pressed for direct aid from the U.S. Nonetheless, America’s tactics struck her out on a path clear of the war.
NARRATOR ONE: Nine months later and an ocean away from Europe’s combatants, a young boy named Jake Alston tossed a baseball with his father and grandfather at Bellewood Park in Roberts County.
Beat 3. Jake, Mr. Alston and Grandfather
SFX: COME UP: SOUNDS OF BELLEWOOD PARK AMUSEMENTS – RAILROAD ENGINE GRINDS TO HALT.
CONDUCTOR: This stop – Bellewood Park.
ALL: (WALLA-WALLA OF AN AMUSEMENT PARK ATTENDEES)
SFX: SHOOTING GALLERY, ROLLER COASTER, DANCE PAVILION MUSIC.
JAKE: I’ll catch dad. You pitch like you did for Chicago.
MR. ALSTON: All right son.
JAKE: Grandpa, you be the umpire.
GRANDFATHER: Already ahead of you Jakey.
JAKE: Okay dad. Here’s the scene. It’s the World Series.
GRANDFATHER: The World Series? On the fourth of May?
JAKE: It’s just pretend. We’re Chicago and we’re playing Detroit just like in Owe-eight. It’s the bottom of the ninth and we’re winning.
MR. ALSTON: How many outs?
JAKE: Two.
GRANDFATHER: Any base runners?
JAKE: One’s on third and one’s on second.
GRANDFATHER: Who’s batting?
JAKE: Ty Cobb.
MR. ALSTON and GRANDFATHER: Oooohhhh.
GRANDFATHER: He’s the best. If he gets a hit we lose.
JAKE: That’s the situation. (CALLS TO MR. ALSTON) Start with a curveball dad.
Beat 4. Ball one
MR. ALSTON: All right Jake. Here’s the first one.
SFX: BEAT. THUMP OF BASEBALL INTO JAKE’S MITT.
GRANDFATHER: Too high. Ball one.
JAKE: Another curve.
MR. ALSTON: Okay.
Beat 5. Ball two
SFX: BEAT. THUMP OF BASEBALL INTO JAKE’S MITT.
GRANDFATHER: Still high. Ball two.
JAKE: Time out ump. Let me talk with my pitcher.
GRANDFATHER: (CHUCKLES) Go ahead Jakey.
JAKE: Hey dad. You’re doing it again.
MR. ALSTON: What?
JAKE: Dropping your shoulder. Your pitches always stay high when you drop your shoulder.
MR. ALSTON: Are you sure?
JAKE: It’s practically scraping the ground. Try the curve again.
MR. ALSTON: All right Jake. Here it comes and I’m keeping my shoulder up.
Beat 6. One strike, two balls
SFX: BEAT. THUMP OF BASEBALL INTO JAKE’S MITT.
GRANDFATHER: Stee-rike one.
JAKE: Great pitch dad. Bring your fastball.
GRANDFATHER: Don’t you want him to stay with the curve since it’s working?
JAKE: Batter’s looking for the curve. The fastball’ll catch him off guard.
MR. ALSTON: Here’s my best.
Beat 7. Two strikes, two balls
SFX: BEAT. EXTRA LOUD THUMP OF BASEBALL INTO JAKE’S MITT.
JAKE: Holy schmoly was that fast.
GRANDFATHER: Stee-rike two. Great pitch son. Old Ty Cobb never would’ve hit that one.
MR. ALSTON: Thanks dad. Okay Jake, we’ve got the batter right where we want him. Let’s close out the Series and go home.
JAKE: Bring the curve one more time.
MR. ALSTON: Everything’s on this pitch Jake. Get ready.
Beat 8. Three strikes, they win
SFX: BEAT. THUMP OF BASEBALL INTO JAKE’S MITT.
GRANDFATHER: Stee-rike three. The batter’s out and the Cubs win the World Series. Just like in Owe-eight.
JAKE: Absolutely beautiful pitch.
MR. ALSTON: No more low shoulder?
JAKE: No more.
MR. ALSTON: Let’s tell your mother we won the World Series.
JAKE, MR. ALSTON and GRANDFATHER: (WALLA-WALL OVER WINNING WORLD SERIES)
Beat 9. Torpedoes elsewhere
NARRATOR ONE: Jake’s Chicago Cubs celebrated their imaginary World Series victory. But in President Wilson’s world, torpedoes were wreaking havoc and taking lives. In Nineteen-fifteen, his path of neutrality was straining.
NARRATOR TWO: German warcraft were sinking ships with Americans on board. In March, the Falaba went down. In April, the Cushing was sunk by a German aeroplane. On May First, the Gulflight was attacked and sunk.
NARRATOR ONE: But on May Seventh, the Lusitania was sunk with the loss of one hundred American lives. The country’s neutrality was fraying and President Wilson’s words were blunt.
Beat 10. The President speaks
PRESIDENT WILSON: These attacks constitute a series of events which this Government has observed with growing concern and distress. The United States is loathe to believe that these acts have the sanction of the Imperial Government of Germany. This Government and the people of the United States look to the Imperial Government of Germany for prompt and swift action on this vital matter.
Beat 11. Bumper
MUSIC: BUMPER.
Beat 12. Back in Roberts County
NARRATOR ONE: But Germany rebuffed President Wilson’s diplomacy and stated that the Lusitania was armed with wartime munitions. To their eyes, the Lusitania was a war vessel. To Wilson, the chances of averting the war were sinking.
NARRATOR TWO: Back in Roberts County, in the midst of the Nineteen-fifteen baseball season, Jake Alston’s beloved Cubs were trailing further behind the National League leaders. One day, after rushing home to read about his Cubbies, his Mother had some strange news.
JAKE: Mom the Cubs lost again.
EDNA: I heard. But your Father’s friend, Mr. Schulman, hit a home run.
JAKE: I’ll tell dad when we play catch.
EDNA: He went to Washington.
JAKE: To see the monuments?
EDNA: To talk with the President. Bad things are happening and he wants a briefing from the Armed Services.
JAKE: But dad retired.
EDNA: All the officers have been called to Washington. President Wilson wants to hear more about Europe from a military perspective in case of...
JAKE: (BITE CUE) In case of us going to war?
EDNA: Yes Jakey. In case of us going to war.
Beat 13. Mr. Alston sees war
ANNOUNCER ONE: America did not enter the War in Nineteen-fifteen or Nineteen-sixteen. But circumstances were changing. On a raw, blustery March day in Nineteen-seventeen, Jake, his father, and grandfather were playing catch at Bellewood Park, again, but with different results.
GRANDFATHER: Ball three and no strikes.
JAKE: That was way high. Go back to the curve but don’t drop your shoulder.
MR. ALSTON: Let’s finish another day.
JAKE: But we’re playing in the World Series.
MR. ALSTON: Not today.
JAKE: But it’s the World...
GRANDFATHER: (GENTLY BITE CUE) Jakey.
JAKE: Okay Grandfather.
Beat 14. It’s war
ANNOUNCER TWO: Jake would not play catch with his father again in Nineteen-seventeen. One week later, on April Second, President Wilson petitioned Congress for a declaration of War and four days after that, the United States was at war.
ANNOUNCER TWO: For many months, Jake’s father spent more time in Washington and less time at home in Roberts County. His mother was sad and cried often. Grandfather spoke very little.
Beat 15. Last holidays
MUSIC: BED: SOMBER HOLIDAY MUSIC.
ANNOUNCER ONE: The holidays came dreadfully and frightfully fast. Thanksgiving was a solemn time.
ANNOUNCER TWO: Christmas had many gifts under the family tree but not the usual sparkle and laughter. On New Year’s Eve, Mr. Alston’s toast, in past years a promise for the future, was more of a hope.
MR. ALSTON: As we gather to end this year, with loved ones drawn together, we reflect upon our joys and sorrows of the past twelve months. As we look forward to Nineteen-eighteen, and if it is the will of our Lord, we pray that we will be together to celebrate twelve months from tonight. Happy New Year everyone.
JAKE: Happy New Year dad.
GRANDFATHER: Happy New Year son.
MR. ALSTON: (BEAT) Happy New Year Edna. (BEAT) Edna?
EDNA: (GO OFF MIC: SOBBING)
MR. ALSTON: (GO OFF MIC) Edna come back.
SFX: OFF MIC: DOOR CLOSES.
JAKE: Mom’s been crying alot lately.
GRANDFATHER: The world’s gone crazy Jakey. And your dad’s sailing into the middle of it.
JAKE: Happy New Year Grandfather.
GRANDFATHER: Happy New Year Jakey.
Beat 16. Mr. Alston – Casualty of war
MUSIC: RISE AND ESTABLISH: SOMBER HOLIDAY MUSIC. OUT.
ANNOUNCER TWO: Three weeks later, Jake’s father left for the First World War. Mr. Alston and over two thousand American soldiers and officers boarded the Tuscania - a converted luxury Ocean Liner. The ship left Hoboken, New Jersey out of the same birth previously reserved for the Lusitania.
ANNOUNCER ONE: The Tuscania met a similar fate. On the night of February Fifth, Nineteen-eighteen, she was sunk by German Submarine U-B-dash-Seventy-seven near the Scottish Island of Islay. Two hundred U-S soldiers were killed - including Jake Alston’s dad.
SINGLE VOICE: (SOLEMNLY) Over there, Over there;
Send the word, Send the word over there;
That the Yanks are coming, The Yanks are coming;
The drums rum-tumming ev'rywhere;
So prepare, Say a pray'r;
Send the word, Send the word to beware;
We'll be o - - ver, we're coming o - - ver;
And we won't come back till it's over Over There.
Beat 17. Closing credits
ANNOUNCER: You have just listened to “Swing For the Fences” starring __________ as Jake Alston and __________ as Mr. Alston. __________ played the role of Grandfather, __________ was Edna Alston and __________ was President Wilson. The Narrators were __________ and __________. __________ directed the script and William Spear wrote it. I’m your Announcer - __________.
#30#--The End
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