Near Rhyme no. 6

NEAR RHYME APR 17 2014 sequence issue

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SCOTT MULLEN TATE DORVINEN GNIVES CHAD REDDEN KATHERINE OSBORNE KEVIN SHARP CHRISTOPHER MORGAN JACKLEEN JOSEPH ALEX TABLON AMELIA GILLIS BOB SCHOFIELD

Remember the time we Stared at the sun and Our pupils burned like Diamonds under hot Kentucky moves to the Shade of purple that Covered the landscape Like film dancing in The direction of your Soul, connection with We our brother rest In peace our brother, Who’s day passed before Noon on the Lord’s Day Blessed are those who mourn For in the lose we Are reborn. Reminded Of all the things we Said we’d never do Free these weightless lights I want to be well.

SCOTT MULLEN

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TATE DORVINEN

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sitting on a sext bed we code transverse romance on the cabinet doors in blood markers es como la inflorescencia planned skeletal symmetry first we a butterfly adder maybe later on phyllotaxidermic flower flesh lattice predictions that make me question the walls and what comes before next

cut quadrivium lines the axis mundi between some gods and i carve it into mirrors for better piece of mind for classical elements i’m oftenly drawn to fire platonic arsonic itch making thirst la collectionneuse the relevance of microcosmic down-time; sacred skulls and bug wings; is indefinitely blind

virtuosa of affect crimes collext specimyns in the golden means of time the cosmos will surely tesselate triangulation in mother tongues ‘skin and blister one and th’other’ we’re bigger than the room we’re bigger than our families we’re bigger than a burning box with a bunch of bullshit relics in the bowels

GNIVES

WUNDERKAMMER NAPALMER

YEAR OF

CHAD REDDEN

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We shared a year our time together with reruns of Seinfeld. At 10:35pm, after the evening news. After she arrived home from her shift at Applebee’s. Before I left to supervise self-storage sheds and tried to write a novel about the havoc and emotions of demonic teenagers in small towns. The orange self-storage sheds. I’m sure you’ve driven by them.

We shared a shower during Jerry’s opening monologues. Her hair went from smelling of strawberry margaritas and garlic mashed potatoes to Garnier Fructis. I can’t remember the scent. Just the green bottle. Maybe the scent was Garnier Fructis for color treated hair.

I think the evening news was still on my mind. There was always a murder investigation on the news. Or there was always a new development in a murder investigation. I wanted to talk about murder investigations and developments, but didn’t. Maybe because the water pressure felt nice and we had a moment of nakedness together.

We shared another moment of nakedness after the shower, when George or Kramer or Elaine or Newman would say something, before we dressed for the night. I put on my uniform. She put on her robe. Maybe George or Kramer or Elaine or Newman would say something funny. I’d laugh for Elaine. I liked her jokes best.

We shared a meal she brought home from Applebee’s. Sometimes a burger or order of nachos. We’d eat it out of the styrofoam clamshell. Kramer or George would enter a room. Or maybe leave a room. I’d say “thank you.” She’d say “welcome.” I pressed into her back, worried I hadn’t pressed hard enough when I washed her. I pressed into her back and took exaggerated breaths to express how hard I pressed into her back. Until she took exaggerated breaths to express how I interrupted her chewing.

We shared the endings of Seinfeld not eating or speaking. Just us on a couch watching everything fall apart for everyone. When I watched Seinfeld during the winter months, when my work and sleep schedule kept me from witnessing the sun, it felt like everything was falling apart for me too. I’d say ‘see you tomorrow.’ She’d say ‘okay.’ Then I drove to work and tried to remember the episode.

When she or I would enter a room. Or maybe leave a room. In my memory, it all felt like the length of a ghost story.

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KATHERINE OSBORNE

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FOR SOME ONE ELSE

1.) First — you were born.

A stuffed stork bit your neck & dropped u & dressed u in blankets. The hospital dressed the stork up to look like your mother (Your mother fell into open graves for the rest of her life until she decided to stop being such a tourist about graveyards).

2.) u drank milk until the store ran out of milk & then u stopped.

3.) Then you grew teeth They fell out later. This forms the basis 4 the anxiety dreams you have for the rest of yr life. That & the episode of the sopranos where that happens to tony.

4.) later. more teeth grow in your mouth. you find out adult hmns grow 32 teeth but when you’re seven u have ninety one teeth in mouth.

You can’t talk so u just watch tv instead. Yr dad thinks all of yr extra teeth give him more Netflix channels.

5.) u run away when yr 12 & u take all the extra netflix channels with u, building a new kingdom by the edge of the sea.

break from the weight of the rain.

KEVIN SHARP

6.) the kingdom spends the rest of yr life falling into ruin until people like Wordsworth write poems about it & the umbrellas they carry

KYLE SCOTT

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CONTEMP

Zoo Birds, Pondering Limitations The Parrot repeats daily: “These cages! Think who controls our lives!

But each time,

the Raven

only says, “Caw”

The Council of Flightless Birds Discuss Adaptation The Penguin proposes, “Perhaps learn to swim?”

Whereas the Ostrich suggests, “Grow tall?”

“Nonsense,” scoffs the Dodo,

“who needs to change?”

Pair of Peregrine Falcons, Mid-Dive The young one brags, “Behold us, fastest fliers on the planet!”

The elder replies,

“Perhaps, yet

only while

in plummet”

PLATIVE BIRDS CHRISTOPHER MORGAN

Surviving Desolation The Roadrunner rants: “How can one find food in a desert?”

The Vulture smiles.

“To never grow hungry,

acquire the taste for death” The Paradox of Presentation “I’m so commonplace,” sighed the Sparrow

until she saw

the bloodied wings

of the Peacock, plucked

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JACKLEEN JOSEPH

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ALEX TABLON

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The stage is dimly lit save for a pool of light that JIMMY inhabits. He is in a washroom, puking straight into the toilet.

When he is done, he goes to the sink to clean himself. He turns the tap for hot water, he looks at himself in the mirror.

The water begins to steam. He puts his hand under it.

He does not flinch, he does not move.

Lights down.

Lights up.

The stage is now a messy bedroom, streaks of light lingering on the floor boards from a setting sun. Clothes thrown about indiscriminately. CATERINA sits on one side of a bed in her underwear smoking a cigarette, opposite of her is NICK. He is putting his clothes on. The ending music for the movie ’GHOST WORLD’ is playing on a tv, quietly

(Playing with her hair)

ie?

CATERINA:

CATERINA:

What if I got a fringe?

We barely watched it.

NICK:

NICK:

What is a fringe?

That is true.

CATERINA:

CATERINA:

It’s british for bangs.

I don’t know, It was sort of depressing.

NICK: (chuckling) Your hair looks fine.

CONTINUED: 2.

CATERINA: NICK: I don’t know, I guess I’m bored.

NICK:

The best kind of movies are like that.

What did you think of the mov-

CATERINA:

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I didn’t really like Enid, her character I mean.

NICK: I don’t think she’s the kind of character you’re

CATERINA: But we should run away, Like in ’The Graduate’ NICK:

supposed to like.

I don’t think it would be as glamorous.

CATERINA:

(thinking)

She just left, I don’t get it, how is that an ending?

Pause.

CATERINA:

NICK: It’s about what she’s leaving behind, that’s what the

Are you going to get the keg now?

NICK:

end is.

I guess so.

CATERINA: CATERINA: Do you ever think about leaving this place?

When do you think you’ll be back?

NICK: NICK: We could have, two weeks ago, if you had given me the word I would have drove straight out of town.

How would I know?

CONTINUED: 3.

CATERINA:

CATERINA: You’re the one leaving.

I didn’t say a single thing did I? NICK: NICK: Neither did I.

What time do you want me back?

CATERINA:

spotlight only for you,

Take as much time as you want.

and you were glowing. You see me, and you look at me

NICK: You’re going to clean this whole house by yourself?

like a secret. You drop the cigarette and burn

Pause.

everything, everything Nick, even us.

CATERINA:

(chuckling)

I had a dream about you.

The lights come down until the only thing visible

NICK: Yeah? did I have long hair and a six pack?

CATERINA: No. NICK: Then enlighten me.

CATERINA: You were in this forest, and it was dark and calm, the way dreams should be. You were standing alone in this clearing, naked and smoking a cigarette. From the distance it looked like you were holding a star. And the moon was like a gigantic

is the cherry burning on CAT’S smoke.

ANNA POSEY

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IT’S JUST HERE

AMELIA GILLIS

needing life to be a butterfly migration, two weeks of evolutionary beauty and strength, and then I die pale in a pile of replicas of myself. okay I don’t have a favorite book because I give them all away and I only half want them back the more I love someone the more it feels like black spring , the less grass is ignored, the more I clam up about my deep seas //depression is exactly like having the flu. it’s exactly like talking about the anniversary of a death. no one can really sympathize even if they’ve felt sick before, and all you want is to be able to breathe out of your nose, you’ll be so thankful, you’ll think about how beautiful breath is, until the day you die, i want to want to be able to articulate why the world turns the wrong way without losing my breath, I want to want to be able to pin point the exact moment I let this dry ice amputate my fingers but I don’t want to and for now saying things the wrong way and slamming dishes and not crying works well enough

CLAIRE DONALDSON

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BOB SCHOFIELD

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