166
2019
NORTH CAROLINA L I T E R A R Y RE V I E W
FINALIST, 2018 JAMES APPLEWHITE POETRY PRIZE BY FRANCES J. PEARCE
Jump One Friday night, before things wafted awry, my parents watched the debate on our new COURTESY OF AND © WITH ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG FOUNDATION
black & white TV set. My father said if Kennedy’s elected, we’ll have war. Two years later, my first-grade class joined in air-raid drills. And then one day, a squadron flew overhead. Theirs or ours – we did not know. Our school, located not far from a swarm of military bases, lay in the path of – something. All the while, a classmate sobbed as her mother lay in a maternity ward waiting to give birth. Cindy feared she’d never get to meet her teensy brother or sister. She prayed the hospital wouldn’t be blown to smithereens. We survived. Our city was not bombed. Only recently did I learn that a single Soviet submariner stood firm between us and all-out war. But when I think back, what I like
Retroactive I, 1936 (oil and silkscreen ink on canvas, 84x60) by Robert Rauschenberg
to remember is my mother standing outside, apron still on, turning the rope attached to a pillar of our front porch, while children from our street, and the next one over, lined up for a chance to jump.
FRANCES J. PEARCE moved to North Carolina at eight years old and has lived in various places across the state, including South Mills, Chapel Hill, Cary, Raleigh, and Burlington. She now resides in Mount Pleasant, SC. Her publications include a chapbook, Those Carolina Parakeets Once Far From Extinct (Finishing Line Press, 2014), and poetry in such venues as Kakalak, Fall Lines, and Archive: South Carolina Poetry since 2005. “Jump” is her first poem in NCLR.
Texas native ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG (1925–2008) served in the Navy and then studied art at the Kansas City Art Institute, Academia Julian in Paris, and Black Mountain College in North Carolina. He is known for his 1950s Combines. His art is featured in many galleries around the world such as Pace Gallery in Hong Kong, Kanal-Centre Pompidou in Brussels, the Barcelona museum of contemporary art, and Weatherspoon Art Museum in North Carolina. Read more about him on the Robert Rauschenberg website.