Our bravest contributors have shared with us some of their more earnest efforts from the misty past. Scary Bush should not be reviewed while in the process of drinking liquids, and the reader assumes all risk.
Suffocate
E. Kristin Anderson
The Cowardice of Squirrels
Jack Somers
The cowardice of squirrels bothers me. I realize this as I lock eyes with the trim little creature sitting in the mulch about fifteen feet away from me beside my landlady’s bonsai bush. I have just noticed him, but the steadiness of his gaze and the stillness of his body tell me he has been aware of me for some time. I lean forward to loosen the laces of my running shoes, and the squirrel’s tail—a flamboyant plume of gray and white—twitches in response to my slow, pained movement. Perhaps he thinks I am getting ready to pounce. He shouldn’t worry. I have just run five miles. I have no pounce left in me. Buck up, squirrel, I want to tell him, I couldn’t catch you even if I wanted to. Don’t waste your fear on me. Save it for your natural predators—for the barn owl, the fox, and the cat. I mean you no harm. But it’s no use. He is paralyzed with terror.
I tug at my shoelace, and the tail twitches again. Then the squirrel darts in a single spasmodic burst across the driveway to the foot of the black oak that overhangs the house. I follow him with my eyes. I want to see how long I can keep track of him. He pauses next to a tree root, a scarred and leathery tentacle jutting out into the driveway. His one eye is still fixed on me, solemn and black as a rosary bead.
Early Decision (draft)
Dante Di Stefano
6 39 42 Eatme
Catherine Sinow (age 16)
In the cobweb in the ribbon
In the cobweb in the -
STOP
39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39
THIRTY STOP
THIRTYeight
UP the nothing
Up the morning up the night in the day in the middle in the
39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 39
Caress and sing and
NOTHING THIRTY EIGHT THE OPEN DOOR IS AN INHIBITOR
NOBODY KNOWS
(everybody thinks)
)everybody(
(nobody)
[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[
Jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
qqqqqqIMPOSSIBLEqqqqqqqqqqqqqSIMPLEqbqqqqqbqqqqqqqqWHATqqqb
IS THAT WHAT BOYS TALK ABOUT IN THEIR SPARE TIME
Mystery it’s all that is
-------------------------------------
………… ………. ……………… ………………………
No.
Way.
Halt.
………….
CAR
DRIVE
EAT
GO HOME
SLEEP
Nothing
Die
Die
Die
Die
38 49
Thirty nine forty one
UP up up up up up up up up
Rubber banddddddddddddddddddddddddddnddddddddddddddddddddnddddddddddd
I lived
I ddied
No did I
You not
Alive still
Stil stil stil stil stil sti
Sti sti
Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Never escape
Space of Space
Catherine Sinow (age 16)
Live die
Me me
Up down
Down no sound
Empty
Empty
Empty up
Fill down
Never in a million years
Eat the cheesecake
Eat it
Eat it
Eat it
Eat
It
Eat it no passage way passageway
Its over here [ ))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))]]]]]]]]]
If you’re
Daring enough’
Go go go
SOUND
Translating Reese
Catherine Sinow (age 16)
Tisserand tisserand
Walking on glass
Magical knitting needles
Weaving waterfalls of miscellany
Night-sky stars
Raining grains of rice
Noctis caelum raining khilyadi zvezdi
Sweetness around me sladkarije
My love lies in saccharine
A honey drop
And for a second
I though I saw your face in it
A world of verwarring
Lost beauty somni somni
Audejas tejer
An endless road with only a suggestion
Prompting an endless search for the answer
Ne sus kai ciou jamas
Essayer sans espoir
J’a ka reel
Met de poir
Mountains of ionada
Hiding behind
Kes d’meta des poir