Prehistoric

LIBE RTAS the prehi storic issue

V o l. 21 , no . 2

SATREBIL editorial EDITORS IN CHIEF Michael DeSimone & Meg Mendenhall EDITORS Samantha Gowing Alyssa Glover Maddie Saidenberg Tom James Madison Santos

Contributor s Callan Gies Alexis Grant Katie Gomulkiewicz Gill Holland Graham Marema Madison Santos Vera Shulman Libertas belongs to the students of Davidson College.

Contact the editors at libertas@davidson.edu

LIBERTAS p r e h i s t o r i c D e ce m b e r 2 0 1 4 Alexis Grant Scott Cunningham

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Embryo Photographs

Gill Holland Katie Gomulkiewicz

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Piedmont Prehistory Spoon Popsicle Summers

Anonymous

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Out of the Woods

Graham Marema Vera Shulman

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The Widening Sun Illustration (Detail)

Cy Ferguson

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Found Pieces From The Land Before Time

Callan Gies Meg Mendenhall

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Harrumph Photograph

Michael DeSimone & Madison Santos

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Tracks of 2014

Michael DeSimone & Madison Santos

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Albums of 2014

Vera Shulman

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Last Word

Cover Art by Grace Nicholson "When not emulating the Goddess known as Dina, her lazy and flawless cat, Grace engages in meticulously detailed and forever monochromatic art, the most delicious of cooking (and baking!), and some of anthropology crap for classes."

(Also she’s from Salisbury, North Carolina and an anthro major)

special thanks to...

Faculty Advisors: Zoran Kuzmanovich, Paul Miller (emeritus), Scott Denham (emeritus), Ann Fox (emeritus) Previous Editors: Jordan Luebkemann, Will Reese, Emily Romeyn, Vincent Weir, Mike Scarbo, Vic Brand, Ann Culp, Erin Smith, Scott Geiger, James Everett, Catherine Walker, Elizabeth Burkhead, Chris Cantanese, Kate Wiseman, Lila Allen, Jessica Malordy, Nina Hawley, Kate Kelly, Zoe Balaconis, Rebecca Hawk, and Hannah Wright Founder: Zac Lacy visit us online: sites.davidson.edu/libertas

One teacher that’s always right is —and always has been— the embryo.

With a start, I watch the first laborious pushes and pulls of a new heart.

Too small, too fast to see, cells are dividing, combining, divorcing and dying.

Uncountable generations of daughters are born while I watch.

Embryo Alexis Grant

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LIBERTAS, Vol. 21, No. 2

I come to see myself under the microscope.

Next: My mother. My father.

All the ancestors.

Moses, Mussolini, the dinosaurs.

Katie Gomulkiewicz

Popsicle Summers Every summer we waited for the tune of the ice cream truck passing by our cul-de-sac.

I liked the SpongeBob with the gumball eyes.

You always got the Rocket Pop-red white and raspberry blue—your tongue stained that unnatural hue. I ate the eyes first.

You tried to steal bite.

I told you to, “go to hell.”

Hell, I picked up cursing young. Mouth washed out with lavender soap (at best) running around the house to escape our mother’s rules. You grinning a sweet popsicle smile as I spat out the bitterness.

Piedmont Prehistory

Gill Holland

inside the woodshed is a bottle inside the bottle a note in which (heart’s past) over mountains down mountains (a pastoral red clay and pines) in a cabin a grease wife hollers

where Bubba an extra old Viking curses in the woodshed

Spoon For dinner, she eats soy sauce speckled rice with a stainless steel spoon.

She heard once that spoons make you eat less.

Is it working?

She doesn’t risk the bathroom mirror.

Later, he slips into the bed beside her and tucks her into the folds of his gentle arms.

How long can she hold him? Her stomach sucked in. How long before she needs to breathe?

Instead, she thinks of a metal spoon warmed by the tongue cradling a tiny grain of rice.

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The Widening Sun Graham Marema

The power went out.

That’s how they knew.

Or maybe it was the maroon and jade tint clotting the edges of the sky in mid-afternoon.

Who can remember which came first?

The fallen trees, rivers all at once running backwards, the pained stillness of streets without cars and sidewalks unused by treaded running sneakers.

They figured, the two of them, that they’d been warned of this.

And though the days grew longer and the sun wider and sweat pasted their hair to the skin of their ears and forehead, they agreed that since the world was ending it wouldn’t hurt to braid their bodies once more on the couch like they’d done when they were younger.

Naked and smelling sulfur, the blinds closed and the white light of a sun too near cutting their living room into long hot ribbons and tasting the salty sweat of the slippery upper lip, they felt clumsy, as they used to.

The apocalypse isn’t so bad actually, he said, though maybe it’s a little warm.

No, she agreed, not bad.

Of all ways to go I think I’d choose this.

Cooked like a pie in the sun.

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LIBERTAS, Vol. 21, No. 2

Found pieces from The Land Before Time

Cy Ferguson

b e f o r e

t h e

w o l f , t h e

b i s o n , t h e w h a l e , S o m e o f t h e y o u n g

[Thunder]

seemed born without fear

W e l l ,

i t ' s l y

h o w

r e a l t h e r e ?

l t ' s h e r All

d o

a l l f a u l t

y o u

whose

fault?

Mother's.

k n o w

Open!

Open!

N

o

w

w

e

n

ln the dark

e

e

d

s

o

m

e

We have to keep going b

a

i

t

.

We'll dream about the sun LIBERTAS, V o l . 2 1 , N o . 2

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Out of the Woods

I’m beginning to forget that man.

The woods tonight were straight out of The Lovely Bones. I’ve only seen the movie, never read that book, and I know that she doesn’t get buried in the woods, but in an open field. Yet, the still air and grey brown light growing denser as I ran later into the evening and deeper into the bowels of growth set a similar stage for murder.

I’m beginning to forget that man.

I went out there to soften my heart, get it to wiggle a little after a week of hard schoolwork. But it was past 5 and I should have known that God was gearing up to lay the blanket of night over this college and the rest of North Carolina, and over the rest of the southeastern United States, of course. You really do forget where you are sometimes, and the time of day, when you’re in one place all of the time. So I risked my life and left the light.

I’m forgetting that man.

The trail curves naturally, but if you don’t want to travel along it on the 5k route you can stomp your feet down in a different direction, and follow a straight shoot.

I got halfway down this straight shoot between where the trees, some thirty or forty feet from the trail on either side, reach up toward the sky. In between the trail and these trees is dried up stubby grass that makes the distance between you and the trees seem even further, like the stretch of desert between thirsty traveller and water. So you have the trees reaching sixty feet up and standing forty feet away from you, and you feel very small. As I was feeling small, I kept running, hearing the brush and crunch of leaves behind me as I kicked up a heel and brought down a shoe, kicked up a heel and felt the pain in my ankle, kicked up a heel and spat. A bird cackled and I saw a man in the bushes.

He crouched there in black and his face blurred. It wasn’t a man—I just thought it was. I stopped. The bird was all I heard, even after the halt of his heaved yelp—cawing, coughing, cawing. I heard the man sneeze. Then my breath was there, coming slower than I thought it should because I had been running so hard. In and out, wuhh and cuckk and I thought, Man, I need to run faster, why am I running so slow? Am I out of shape? My feet moved again and my arms pumped and the man spectated. The trees stood, looking real old and tired with limp orange and yellow leaves like a grandmother who dies her hair a color that embarrasses you. I was standing in a landscape painting by Egon Schiele. And the man I loved wasn’t there. He just wasn’t.

The cold air rang loud. The man I loved always used to show up right about this time, because you know what they say, if there’s solitude enough you can get the man you want to stand with you in it. And he used to. He used to show up when I was most alone, and it was the quietest, when no other thoughts or warm pictures of any person were in my mind. But this time all I imagined was a lonely mentally ill man hiding in the bushes waiting to grab me.

And the man I loved couldn’t get his thin body in between 7

LIBERTAS, Vol. 21, No. 2

me and the sight of the creep, no matter how hard I worked my brain. So it kept growing darker. I turned back. You never realize how far you’ve come until you fold your limp body back around and the yearning for the end is a fire ablaze in your muscles. I had lied. It was night. You think you can lie to yourself and to your mother who says, “Isn’t is almost dark there?” over the telephone to get you to stay inside, but you can’t, because God puts night down on the world to remind us that we have to shut off the day and can’t get too much done. And God puts the man I loved in the world to teach me that I cannot have what I want even though I worked very hard for it every day.

He was a piece of history, and like everything with a century tacked onto it that we learn about at this college, I cannot hold him in my hands because he has already happened. He is old, older than I should be allowed to think, and we’re not too good of friends anymore.

Gray and moving, the trees became. I leaped, charged, and lurched back fast as I could, because the mentally ill man and some of his friends were up and walking now, treading toward the finish. Someone must have whispered down the lane that I was coming. I ran, and the spindly arms, fallen hair and dark thick bosoms of the trees began to sway and churn, and I ran. I was nothing, I was fading as I moved and the woods lied to me now, smirking. The dark would never end as I had fibbed that the light never would. And the days of sunburnt skin and skinny fingers stuck in armpits and squinted lids and salted lip corners were very far from here. They were past the past, or outside of the past. Prehistoric.

Once, I knew a man when he was old, but loved him when he was young. I made up his youth inside my head.

I ran and ran, and outran the creepy men.

I sweat and breathe, and the love of this man has gone.

Harrumph I spoke my first love Eight thousand years ago I say love As a word But you would reduce it to a Grunt You take away its truth Don’t Dun Harrumph Try Tuh To Stahl Steal I labored for hours For days Forever Just to force out some consonants next to Vowels Vulew Ones you would say do not have Meaning Mang Tshh Please But they did I have proof One day I was brave and I made those words at him and He responded with New faces Hope Hupp

Callan Gies

And I prodded him Poked his awm Twisted my muth to be what he Always wanted to Kiss Chss It worked He tried using his mouth A breath Ah He tried using his tongue A slurp Slllhp I put my hand on his stomach and pushed Harrumph Try Bubbles of sound rose out of my Heart Haht Surprised at the noise when it Escaped from a mouth That wasn’t Mine Mine He twisted his lips And then pressed his Nose to my muth And I heard him finally Speak Words Love And we did

LIBERTAS, V o l . 2 1 , N o . 2

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TRACKS

O20 F14

AS SELECTED BY MICHAEL DESIMONE AND MADISON SANTOS

MICHAEL

0 to 100/The Catch Up by Drake Partition (Chopped & Screwed by DJ Candlestick) by Beyonce Have a Sad Cum by Death Grips Secant by Ben Frost Intro Bonito by Kero Kero Bonito Past Lives by Real Estate A Long Walk Home for Parted Lovers by Yumi Zouma Corrosive by Millie & Andrea Chamber of Reflection by Max Demarco Untitled A3 by Kassem Mosse Soda by Azealia Banks Cold Sweat by Tinashe Have Her Like by BeatKing The FUCK Out of My Lane by Road Hog Begin to Begin by Lone Motion Sickness by Shabazz Palaces Biggest Joke of All by Fatima Back Home by Caribou Severed Crossed Fingers by St. Vincent Lakers feat. Ab-Soul & Polyester the Saint by Freddie Gibbs and Madlib

Freq feat. JoJo by Pharrell My All by Gundam Don’t Leave by Mr. Mitch Dope Boy Magic by Z Money ザーメン by Little Cloud Can’t Find a Reason by Marquis Hawkes Intro feat. Jay 305 // NDK feat. Big Sean by Ty Dolla $ign Hands Up by Vince Staples Sorry Momma feat. Ty Dolla $ign by YG Real Thing by Tune-Yards Do it To Ya feat. TeeFLii by YG Pendulum by FKA twigs Forerunny Foray by Shabazz Palaces Problem feat. Igloo Australia by Ariana Grande Love Songs by DJ Dodger Stadium Repeat Pleasure by How to Dress Well Blow Ya Smoke (Qween Beat Super High Remix) by Divoli S’vere Keri Baby feat. Hannah Diamond by A. G. Cook Starlight by Pure X Coming Home by Leon Bridges

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LIBERTAS, Vol. 21, No. 2

40 39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

MADISON

After Ur Gone by Alex G Mr. Noah by Panda Bear Annie’s a Witch by LVL UP baker’s dozen by mrs. hopewell Sick Jackets by Rozwell Kid Who Do You Love? feat. Drake by YG Boy by Alex G Schley by Joyce Manor closer by nouns Life in Drag by The Hotelier The Queen by Pianos Become the Teeth Oxygen by Swans Mumble by Whirr When the People Cheer by The Roots Mediocre at Best by Sorority Noise

Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck) feat. Zach De La Rocha by Run the Jewels

Compliant by Shellac Jetpacks by Brightside Black Quarterback by Death Grips Can’t Do Without You by Caribou I’m the Rap God by Lil B Me & My Bitch feat. Tory Lanez by YG ES by Crying Dig by Nothing Dead Wrong by Somos you came to me in a lucid dream by mrs. hopewell Soft Power by LVL UP Dogs by Sun Kil Moon Shopper’s Beef by TWAIBP Higher feat. Raury by SBTRKT Fuck KD by Lil B wreck by nouns Pray for Newtown by Sun Kil Moon Your Deep Rest by The Hotelier Chamber of Reflection by Mac Demarco Christmas Card by Joyce Manor International by Lust for Youth Space Exploration to Solve Earthly Crises by TWIABP&IANLATD

DSU by Alex G Dead Man’s Tetris feat. Captain Murphy & Snoop Dogg by Flying Lotus

ALBUMS

O20 F14

AS SELECTED BY MICHAEL DESIMONE AND MADISON SANTOS

MADISON

MICHAEL

A U R O R A by Ben Frost 30 I Am King by Code Orange

D.W.B. by Road Hog 29 ni**as on the moon by Death Grips Debut by P. Morris 28 Keep Doing What You’re Doing by You Blew It! Psychic 9-5 Club by HTRK 27 Wonder Where We Land by SBTRKT Atlas by Real Estate 26 Mediumship by Dikembe ni**as on the moon by Death Grips 25 Zentropy by Frankie Cosmos The God Complex by GoldLink 24 Get Olde/Second Wind by Crying Into Mist EP by Murlo 23 High Life by Brian Eno & Karl Hyde Salad Days by Mac DeMarco 22 RTJ2 by Run the Jewels III by BADBADNOTGOOD 21 LP1 by FKA Twigs 6 God EP by Drake 20 Keep You by Pianos Become the Teeth Drop the Vowels by Millie & Andrea 19 Temple of Plenty by Somos Workshop 19 by Kassem Mosse 18

Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light on Everything by Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra

Asleep Versions by Jon Hopkins 17 My Krazy Life by YG IVRY by 100s 16 05 Fuck Em by Lil B EP by Yumi Zouma 15 brief interviews with suffering by mrs. hopewell Pole Sex EP by BeatKing 14 Guilty of Everything by Nothing Our Love by Caribou 13 To Be Kind by Swans Yellow Memories by Fatima 12 Our Love by Caribou Hell Can Wait by Vince Staples 11 Too Shabby by Rozwell Kid Angel by Pure X 10 Dude Incredible by Shellac Faces by Mac Miller 9 still by nouns Menace in the Phantom by Cakedog 8 Hoodwink’d by LVL UP St. Vincent by St. Vincent 7 You’re Dead! by Flying Lotus Broke with Expensive Taste by Azealia Banks 6 DSU by Alex G Piñata by Freddie Gibbs & Madlib 5

Between Bodies by The World is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die

What is this Heart? by How to Dress Well 4 Never Hungover Again by Joyne Manor Nikki Nack by Tune-Yards 3 Salad Days by Mac Demarco My Krazy Life by YG 2 Home, Life no Place is There by The Hotelier Lese Majesty by Shabazz Palaces 1 Benji by Sun Kil Moon

LIBERTAS, V o l . 2 1 , N o . 2

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LIBERTAS last word

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LIBERTAS, Vol. 21, No. 2