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NORTH CAROLINA L I T E R A R Y RE V I E W
Winter 2023
2022 JAMES APPLEWHITE POETRY PRIZE SEMIFINALIST BY ALMYR L. BUMP
Hard Tailed Mules pull plows, small hooves, eat less than horses. Sterile. COURTESY OF GALLERY C
I plowed an acre, peanuts, with a Joe Harrow and bridle. Son, keep him straight. Sharp backbone and huge muscles drive mules built for field work. Pull tobacco sleds from field to barn, fresh and ready to haul. You got to keep him straight. with a “Git Up” and a “Gee Haw” pin eyes to that line, the harvest in mind. In the field hoeing, weeds dug down. Wear sleeves cuttin okree. Baca Barn Icon (etching, 28x23) by Donald Sexauer
Wake up, momma; turn the lamp down low. Y’all come eat and see that my grave is kept clean.
DONALD SEXAUER (1932–2003) was born in Erie, PA. He studied at William and Mary in the early 1950s, received a BFA from Edinboro State College in 1957, and received an MFA from Kent State University in 1960. Shortly after, he was appointed Professor of Printmaking at ECU where he helped develop the printmaking and art programs. In 1971, he volunteered as an Army artist in Vietnam. He retired from ECU after more than forty years of teaching in 2002. His work appears in numerous private and public collections, including the Mint Museum in Charlotte, the National Museum of American Art at the Smithsonian in DC, and the North Carolina Museum of Art. See more at Gallery C in Raleigh.
ALMYR L. BUMP is a native of Dobson in Surry County, NC, and an infantry officer with both enlisted and commissioned service. He currently works as a regional response planner for NORTHCOM Homeland Region I. His work appeared most recently in Proud to Be: Vol. 9; Consequence, and Free State Review.