Donald OverthecBridge Summer came through the trees. And me the Employeesonly door reached out and byJancLask§r Then why won't you go? Do you want Bill to sitting on the edge of a wooden park bench swallowed me. walk with you? Are you afraid to walk home watching it come and I could smell it like it was Margaret Linden was four feet six inches tall by dripping from the green wind that the leaves yourself? and wore fluffy pink hair around her head and made. Summer. And I don't know. on the wharves behind the thick pink rimmed glasses around her eyes. She And Bill standing behind her park I could smell the Portuguese fishing boats watched me from the other side of the Toll aiming at me and with his paperbag lunch and his face and fist my brother Bill helping them unload a Room door. (When late, it was written in the clenched up, twisted, menacing, glaring at me. shipful of tuna and I could smell them getting Black Book, an operator must first report to her those big fish ready to cut their heads off. And I No. I don't want Bill to walk with me. I'm not supervisor.) afraid. closed my eyes and listened to fudge cooking in the candy shop on the corner and to the hard Margaret's pink rims watched me move Then will you go to school? toward her. rubber soles of people walking in the streets and Yes. Hi Margaret. I had my headset on and spoke Will you stay there Lou? scraping against hot metal cars and dripping ice carefully into the mouthpiece. Yes. cream and sticky asphalt and summer came Are you late? And Mom handed me two cookies in a brown through the trees at my nose. Louise Johnson, it I guess I am. said, Why aren't you working? bag and Bill unclenched his fist and I went to Why are you late? school. But it was only Marty Fink coming from the No reason was good enough for Margaret. But there was Donald on the way back. Third telephone building where we both worked and Nothing stopped her from reaching the Toll walking lunchly across the green to my bench. Room. Not grade Donald and the biggest the biggest that I floods or famines or blizzards. had ever seen and he moved with such slow Louise Johnson, why aren't you working? Nothing had stopped her for twenty-one devoted I closed my eyes and moved two inches on my pink enormous footsteps and his arms and legs twisted years. like bench and smelled summer. Hello Marty Fink. I don't know, I told an octopus and his hair dark grease in his Margaret. I don't know eyes behind me every day. Never spoke or threw Louise Johnson why aren't you working? why I'm late. rocks or looked in my direction. But Donald I thought I'd go in to work after lunch. The pink rims pierced deep through me. Sit What time are you supposed to work? every day with octopus feet and thick black down, Lou, Margaret said and moved me by the grease and me walking home on the bridge every Ninethirty. remote control deep in her pink irises to position It's elevenfifteen. day by myself. 14. I know it is. I sat down at the switchboard and They never guessed that I was plotting picked up a murder. That every night I prayed hard for rain Why aren't you working Louise? Why aren't cord. (An operator, said the mighty Black Book, and for Dad's big umbrella and I you working? must AT ALL TIMES have a cord in her hand.) plotted and counted how long it took Donald to lumber out I smelled summer some more and listened to Maria was next to me at position 15. Maria was of his third grade classroom onto the Marty Fink. I don't know, Marty. She went to sidewalk. It easily nine feet tall and close to seven feet wide would take a little more time in the get lunch. and moved with a steady twining motion in her rain, of course. And if I wasted time to have a In the lobby a small beige phone lived inside a long wide arms like an octopus. I sat very still plastic rainhat tied at my chin and tight metal case on the wall, i opened the case and watched her from the corner of my eye. Her help me please buckle my yellow raincoat and such a and lifted the phone and placed it carefully voice wheezed into her headset to one customer big umbrella for such a little between my right shoulder and my head. Good and her enormous fingers flicked back and forth girl well I could wait till Donald got ahead of me. morning, beige phone, I told it. It buzzed into from tickets to cords to dials. Now and then a Then the bridge. The big wooden my ear. light would appear on the switchboard and falling apart My left hand reached out and pulled hard on bridge where I had suffered the echoes of Maria's octopus arms would swoop over and stab Donald's footsteps so many times. And the Employeesonly door handle. It didn't move. it. Operator, she'd bellow. It didn't have a chance naving removed my boots which sloshed so I leaned back hard, pulling and listening to the against her eight powerful twining arms, so I sat loudly I would rum up silently behind him and beige phone. quietly and watched her swoop and stab. You're quickly of he'd never know what hit him so The buzzing stopped. Operator, the phone still not working Louise Johnson you are rotten quickly stab at his back with Dad's told me. to the core you will never come to any good. big black umbrella and a burst of power like a lever Louise Johnson, I answered. simple machine and Never any Donald over the bridge. Beneath my left fingers the Employeesonly door good. Not as long as Donald was there. Lou. Moin kept saying, what's Operator. Maria reached in front of me and I wrong. yawned open. Thankyou, 1 told the phone. Don't you like kindergarten Me biting ducked from the octopus. The switchboard my lip in Right, it said again. (An operator, the Black front of her and tracing X's on the floor with my bloomed into Christmas lights. Margaret was Book notes, does not say okay.) Right. feet. Don't you like school, Lou. I hung the beige phone back in its case and I don't know. (continued on back) PHOENIX Beyond scattered maples, withered with fall. An idling girl, filtered clear then indistinct, Like a face through a white picket fence, Rises toward the stream, as if to cross. Wilting, sprawling unawares, she leans, Breasts to knees to toss a stone against .Bleached - out clay, and glances over splintered Shale and fossiled stream toward weed-shrewn graves Feel a boy run past on a hillside road. He leans panting against a guard post. Shirt undone, shoes scarred in ascent, Afternoon breezeless, moment unending. /A stone drops clattering; a confluence of tears Sparkling in a final ray of silent sun. -Jay Paul GOD INSPIRES THE POETS He was about to read the one where his family almost suffocates in darkness white as the Paradiso when the rain really began, sirens slinging warnings like screaming stones over the city. The room had been too stuffy anyway. Backs were falling from the chairs. People closed their minds like books. Whirlwinds cannot be eluded. Phone calls to sitters/quick trips home/beer cans popping faster/risking creaking steps into a cooling celler/the real party had just begun. The old man, hair slicked, beard jutting into the wind, the porch an open bridge where some were pretending to steer, wind smashing his face with laughter, his own words Lorraine Sigle — a junior Er transfer student from Lansin ("I've lived long enough already.") College, a new poet to the MSU first publication. The chatter below/the roar surrounding/a choice. Jay Paul — a graduate of Hart' Beer upstairs/friends below. Oneonta, N.Y., has nearly comp So it went. (Untitled) dissertation on James Fenimor accepted a position at No until a flash Coming on you unexpectedly like that, University starting next fall, is a book of poems published by Wi silenced the cellar. All eyes at Washington and Shiawassee poems have also appeared in mai mourned the burned and broken you seemed a Jonah - magazines around the country. cord, the smashed radio, knowing now they'd never know Freshly spewed from the darkness, Richard Thomas — a history gri if the from the closed - mouth conspiracy laughing captain had a chance recently married, works in the Cc to weather the lurking blow. that kept us turning different corners. Affairs, his poetry has been feat anthologies including "Nin< For a moment stood, published by Moore Publishing ( The entire city saw we many literary magazines, appearei the black funnel of fate grounded in each other's eyes, reading New Black Poets in Ai the next night/took pictures/ making sentences from the scraps at hand, York City last term which attract phoned friends, but our poet building an island with words. among others. lay disconnected, still of use, like the beer. But it was cold there on the corner, He came up, faced us and we could not withstand read and knew we knew the current of our separate selves. real wind had Our island was too soon swamped, swiped his life away. and you were swallowed up again. Lorrane Sigle Jay Paul ink drawing by D morning there are no buildings here no early morning neurotic traffic no blank faces racing with clocks in their bloodstreams mi*» no no new Chicago sudden morning explosion york mob rushing underground into the sickening belly of the city Vomiting up the souls of the people no detroit blue shirts ford and Chrysler zombies rushing to their daily funerals no stuffed buses full of dying shapes of obscene visions of fatter wallets and mini-skirt teenagers advertising their thighs to the old men looking over their newspapers in the park Morning here stretches out treeline touches but does not disturb the settling blue sky. birds circle insects sing (do insects sing in subways have you ever watched a small bee drink from the yellow face of a flower?) no cities roaring in the morning never sleep - restless whores! beds full of men. the only intruder is a jet — and it is gone now. the outhouse is a suite to us - Listen! Listen! you finely dressed deadmen your inside choked with smoke and car parts, your breath of smog — your neurotic pace your empty face your jet jetting you through time and space Listen to your subways Listen to your noisy coming awake Look at the blueshirt factory workers the black domestics the white slaves the technicolor slave driver* Listen cities/ and (Untitled) Dig your doom swelling and you on top This past winter was dead in the center. of all your technology White ash of burned stars settled on our minds. chasing yourself through It did not snow. the bellies of your ugly magic It remained unmusical -Richard W. Thomas junior English major, a the clack of cleated tires on dry pavement. — a as t from Lansing Community Then we had rain; oet to the MSU area, this is her Freezing rain that iced in the town raduate of Hartwick College in and threatened to refuse traffic. has nearly completed his Ph.D. We slept in that morning. We are no one. James Fenimore Cooper, has A stone carving they osition at Northern Illinois touch and love. But by noon the roads were salted, ig next fall, is about to have a and there wasn't enough conversation published by Windfall Press, his We the Brothers to last the evening. appeared in many small literary 1 the country. We let the coffee go cold in our cups. loved and unloved while Judases make out Our street began to look hollow cheeked. under our crosses — a history graduate student, works in the Center for Urban All the houses grew round - shouldered with our ex - lovers. and apologetic about their paint. wno in our upperroom ry has been featured in various ncluding "Nine Black Poets" It was February and we expected snow. swore to never leave, >ore Publishing Co. and also in our names now annoying gazines, appeared at the poetry memories ick Poets in America in New The clouds collected and hung like slow lovers, rm which attracted Leroy Jones ponderous and afraid. as they undress to A fine powder fell and hid itself like a young girl give themselves to who knows she has no bosom. our executioners. While we look down We went to bed that night without turning on the light, choking on spotlight and talked about the storm of three years ago, -Richard W. Thomas i when you wore snow shoes to McGowen's Grocery, and 1 baked bread for the first time. —Lorraine Sigle ink drawiriK by David Kirkpatrick Yes sir, the charge on your call is two dollars Where said Bill. pacing steadily back and forth behind me. I lifted and a cord and plugged it into a light. Operator. forty cents plus tax for a total of five Where out there, isn't that it? The one she minutes. threw into the hurricane. Allen's hair was red And the river water brown half sea and salt Two dollars my god Operator you're kinks in the summer hot wetness. When do you running .crazy over its banks. Donald over the crazy. Since when is it two dollars. think they'll bridge. And I would sweep the black umbrella build the new bridge? Well sir you did call person to person. It costs back under my arm and no one would know. Bridge? I asked. Are they building a new one? more you know. Excuse me a moment Such a big umbrella for such a little girl. Donald please sir. Allen you broke that umbrella. I have to leave the line moment. over the bridge. Sure they are, Bill said, Where should we go Operator. Operator please dial 2032352992 Operator I wanted Boston information. Yes tomorrow Allen? And I could feel them sir. One moment please. thinking and I wish to speak personally with Mr. Saturday night peanut butter jars. What are they doing, Dad, I asked, Blackington and Fd like the time and charges on watching Bill, I said, Do you remember Donald. the cardinals. Red feathers the call and operator hurry I'm calling from smashing into glass. Donald? Bfll threw a stone into the river. I 4838214 got that now please hurry. Beating red fog mornings into windows. skipped twice over itself and fell under the sleepy I don't know Lou. I don't know what Oae moment please sir. they're brown water. Sleeping next to the lazy river Hare you got that Operator have you got doing. fishes. Bill picked up another stone. it all The cardinals stayed for two months. Five I'm in a hurry. I don't know anybody named Donald. Would you repeat the number you're o'clock every morning they'd start calling banging Bill, said Allen, let's go get the rest of that please. through the fog on our windows. Sitting in the umbrella. cold hard maple branches and Brown crazy water running wild into the they'd fly one by Donald moved away anyway, I said but they one into the windows. And all woods. Over the bridge the bridge and we of us watching weren't listening. Do you really think them smash scarlet they'll couldn't see through the rain. driving beaks into the glass. build a new bridge soon? Allen over the. Beak agianst pane How much longer do you think the bridge will tearing at glass with feathers. Sir would you deposit fifty cents please. What do they want and last, asked Allen. His hair was deep red kinks in every morning at five I did, Operator. the rain. o'clock for two months they came. Nobody I only heard thirty five sir. Two knew why. minutes, Bill said. What do they teach It was fifty. Dad hung old shirts and you at Choate? paper bags and Well sir I don't think I heard. scarecrows in the windows. Mom woke jAllen turned the color of his hair. I don't early and Fifty, Operator. Don't you believe me. Maybe think the bridge will last much went outside to try to scare them longer. Do you away. Every your supervisor will believe me. Lou? morning five o'clock red feather smashing at Yes sir. I believe you. Never mind it sir. I Allen you're sitting on my umbrella. glass. The cardinals stayed for two months. could see Margaret's short pink fuzz from the Never seen the river so high. I wonder how And you're calling from a pay phone sir? You corner of my eye. Maria was still next to me much will be left of the beach. I bet a lot will were cut off oh I'm sorry sir. No I don't know stabbing and swooping at position 15. Operator. wash away. what happened. Just a minute please 111 try to Donald over the Allen over the I wonder I don't know Bill. Allen get your party back. where the cardinals. you're sitting on my Three minutes signal when umbrella. through please. Operator. The switch board was swimming Allen came then and on And your number is 4838214. Thank you sir. Saturday mornings with lights. Yes sir. I'm sorry. when his father Mr. Allen Alfred Barrington Lazy river fishes Donald over the. Senior went shopping in Bad day,Operator, is that what's wrong? Hyannis with his My left hand stabbed quickly at a light with mother Mrs. Allen Alfred I don't know sir. Yes sir I guess so. Barrington Senior he my back cord (an operator ALWAYS answers would collect peanut butter Allen came through the back yard wearing a jars and fill them lights with back cords; front cords are for dialing with rum and whiskey from his father's heavy sweatshirt that said CHOATE in thick blue liquor out and my right hand carefully wrote down letters. Allen cabinets and then fill the rum and lived in our back yard whiskey the details of the call. in every bottles with water. He invited Bill to Creditcardpersontoperson summer a modern A-frame summer home with help and to Cleveland, Ohio. I lifted a front cord his parents Mr. and Mrs. Allen Alfred they hid the peanut butter jars under the scrub (ALWAYS a cord in Barrington pines and hemlocks in the hand) and plunged it Senior. the back yard During the winters Allen lived partly at and on Maria-like into another light. Payphone to Choate Preparatory Academy (which would Saturday nights they said they were going to the Boston. I closed my key and watched Mr. enable him in about two more years to beach. Did they teach you this at emerge Choate, Bill Creditcard talk to Mr. Payphone. The from our back yard with YALE written said. Allen's face was the color of his hair. lights thickly They blinked on and off violently. Signal the operator across his chest) and partly in a were friends afterwards and summer came and I told them. Go ahead and large split level the signal Louise Johnson home in Deep River Conn., where his father was cardinals weren't there in the you'll never come to any good. a dentist. He came through the back yard and his morning. One moment for your overtime I had another set of cords in my hands. Back Mir was red kinks in the rain. cord into one light front cord into another. Hello Lou, Allen said. He took off his I don't have any overtime glasses Operator. I hung and right up. I don't owe any money. Signal signal they blinked crazily frantically and I wiped them. Hello Bill. Bill moved to another room. Sir you talked for seven minutes laughed and Maria sitting there staring octopus you only paid for three. eyes at me an operator NEVER laughs at the I heard that the bridge is going to wash away. switchboard. 1 plugged Mr. Blackington into Mr. Do you think it will? Bill hated the cardinals anyway because once B ostoninformationplease The bridge, I said. when he drove the and Mr. pickup to Hyannis a bird Allen nodded. Do you think it will wash killed itself against the front window and when Overduepayphone into Allen and into Donald and the river will they ever build a new away? he stopped the car a piece of its head was still on bridge over the bridge over the. the dashboard. It wasn't a cardinal but he Long distance is calling for Mr. Blackington. Is hated he there please? all birds after that and he would never drive Standing up at the switchboard (NEVER said with the windows open because he read once the Black Book) and my hands removed (They alway named hurricanes things like that a by bird had flown into headset and placed it down in front of me Alice or Cindy or Ethel. By the time the alphabet somebody's window and cut (OH itself in half. But I loved the cardinals because NO said the Black Book NEVER) and got to the L's there were no good storms left and my ears they were red in the morning and because felt Margaret Linden's feet moving fast and they never named them Louise anyway.) we pink One moment please sir. They're never knew what they wanted in our window. toward me and my feet ran quickly in the other getting Mr. And I almost hated the part of Bill that hated the direction and me standing there a minute Blackington for you. pulling cardinals because he knew why he hatea tnem hard on the Toll Room door. My god, Lou, you're a mess. Where have you been in this weather. and how could he know when I never knew why Marty Fink was sitting outside in the lounge (Worst hurricane we've had in years the papers I hated Donald. wearing her headset. I ran quickly by. Louise That will be an additional fifty cents Johnson she said into her mouthpiece Where are said.) please I went out with Bill and Allen to see what's for a total of seven minutes. you going. Why aren't you working Louise. left of the bridge. It's almost all washed Donald the biggest the biggest. I don't know Marty. away. Look, Allen siad, You I ran down the stairs. Summer (They never named them Louise.) can see a piece of was coming Where's your umbrella Lou? Why are you so Louise's old umbreHaViver there on the rocks. through the trees. wet? I don't know. What happened to your umbrella. Me standing there infront of Dad biting my lip again and looking carefully at the floor. It fell into the river, Dad. Fell into the my god Lou fifteen years old and you can't hang onto a what is wrong with you Brown salt wild water spilling over its banks. It isn't any good now, Bill, I'm going to throw it in. Brown monster witches mouths swallowing black spokes. Over the bridge over the Allen you sat on my umbrella. His hair was red kinks in the rain. Mr Blackington? Thank you. Go ahead now, sir. Operator. Credit card call please card number 4995690548Z and I need information in Boston. Thank you sir. One moment please. Yes sir are you finished with you call? The charges Operator. I asked you for the time and charges on the call. Right, sir. One moment please. The cardinals lived in our back yard right b» fore Allen came two years ago. March and haltsnow haifrain winds and morning fogs and the'd be sitting in the maple tree's cold gray branches and I could hear them bringing spring through the trees in the morning. Six cardinals and they were red in the fog.