phaedrus 2011 issue #1

8/2/2019 Phaedrus 2011 Issue #1

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2011


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A Publicaon of the Student

Goverment of the Francis W.

Parker School :

Published November 2011


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ISSUE ONE


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by Nick Coetzee

These pearly sands Ive grown to love,

The waves crash with foam of white,

I turn my head and look above

To see the reworks.

The sandpipers get a little scare;

They scamper across the tide.

The light from moons night glare

Illuminates the sand as the waves.

A special evening, without a doubt -

Every year it returns with relief.

This year, though, resolutions were stout,

Determined, but rather brief.

The warm ocean breeze runs through my hair

The waves crash on my feet in a heap

Nothing is better than this refreshing night air

Time to put this year to sleep.


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by Nicole Hunter

Singular man rowing on the black sea

That the man swears was blue at some point

Though that mightve been long ago

He does not know.

He rows his black boat in a straight line

because that is what his father told him to do

That if he did

he would end up somewhere better

And so the old man rows

In a straight line

Into the dark twister raging

not even a nautical mile away

When he notices

the little gray puppy had turned to a dog

And then he noticed that he had

Died

Any tears the man could have shed the body

refused to allow

So with eyes and mouth equally as dry asmonth old toast

he pushes the dog into the water

where it soon embraces him

Then takes him under

As if it were alive

Or envious of life

And then

The salt and pepper man

takes the oars again

And begins to row

Up a black wave

In the black sea

In a straight line.


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by Nicole Hunter

I dont remember your face

Nor your sound

Nor the presumably warm feeling of your embrace

Those memories were lost when I saw you last.

In place of all those other memories I was

branded with a scent

Your scent I mean

Not the most recent scent

That one I have luckily forgotten

The smell of what seemed to be thousands of years before

that when you were still animated

Live

You smelled like a man should

Like a lumberjack like that lumberjacks castle

and the pine forest where we used to hikeAnd the cigarettes that your granddad used to smoke.

He said that they would kill him.

And they did.

And now the same has happened to you

The charcoal still smells like cigarette smoke

and the dirt still smells like pine

In the castle where we couldnt see the sky

And the grave where I left that sweet smelling vine

Smells like both of those things combined.


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by Meghan Randolph

Its a street known across color lines,

Corners that change with neighborhoods,

Spiced by the world wafting through window screens.

Hidden in the depths of Rogers Park,

An overlooked intersection

On a street that never quiets,

Is a corner that paints blues and greens over door-

ways

With unabashed expression.

It speaks of tacos synonymous with futbol,

Serving wisdom dipped in salsa

To women holding babies swaddled in Africa.

A community being preached from the pulpit

Of a 24-hour Currency Exchange,

Sermons are spoken in the universal language

Of the body:Crooked smiles,

Eyebrows raised,

Eyes searching through the

Shadows of crinkled foreheads,

A hand outstretched.

Here no one cares if you speak

In broken English,

Because everyones a little bit

Broken.


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WhiteBy Ariel Kaufman

Its been a long time since

It really snowed.

Like a ower falling over your eye

In the glow of a clouded day,

When your ngers are frozen

In a sea of crystals shooting whiteness

Like a gun so silent

It can take your breath away

With nothing left but the tapping of your

heartbeat.

As the winds cease for a small moment

The oceans of glassy powder stop

Everything from moving

Like a forest re in a hurricane.

So for a nite momentI can put my nose to the window

And it casts a shadow

so white.


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by Nicole Hunter

When we went on the road

How long ago was that?

Feels distant as memories of our own birth

With our egos fat as the lords

And a hummer big as Americas fat ass

And a thousand bucks that we saved fromWhatever it was we did.

We thought it would be easy as picking a single blade of grass.

Between food and drinks we ended up in the

middle of the desert in Texas

dry as a chain smokers hello

with $40 for gas

good for 36 gallons

Good for 2 miles and some change.

I remember slapping you quick as a dominatrixs whip for crying

Wasting water as if we were in the middle of

Fucking lake Baikal

Instead of the biggest desert in America.Do you remember how we sat there and baked

Like pot addicts in the noon day sun?


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by Emily Lipson

Violently I squirm

Under the weight of the thick soil

Disagreeably pressing on my undeveloped buds

My seed is a product of the core below

The ground, the land, the moist, warm,

underlayers of thick crust of earth

act as my solicitous womb

I grow beneath the iron megopolis,

the coal-powered factory,

the toxic cestpools of crude oil waste

Detached from the industrial world,

I am but a creation of it

My home, infused with vitamins, minerals,

insects, termites, roots, and sediment

Is just an illusionAs my peeping stems

penetrate the walls of this haven

and seek the truth above

Where reality gleams its ostentatious light

That light is uorescent and

hangs heavy from a factory ceiling

Flickering without rhythm

I dont see the illumination,

but have a sure sense of it above me

Get me out of this natural abodeThe bright light of heaven is calling


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by Nicole Hunter

Mama, you always told me that life was like

being thrown into a desert

with no shoes no food

and just a small canteen of water.

She told me that life was going to be shit.

Thats exactly how she said it too.

Kiddo, life will be shit.Most likely youll never want to die though.

So youll drag yourself forward.

Gasping for water she said.

Wild with hunger.

Someone will whisper to you that if you make it

to the other side youll be rewarded with an eternal oasis.

And so you will trudge on

And if you are strong

Enough to hunt and eat the weak

Then every once and a while you will nd some water

But this will eventually dry up or the pull of paradise will pull you onAnd on.

A small paradise for the lucky with plump and wild geese

with palm and a coconut scented beach.

Mama, Im nearly at the other side of this desert.

Mama, since I started walking I have found no water, no oasis no peace

Mama, I fear that the desert does not end.

I fear that if it ends that all there will be is a chasm.

Mama, mama I fear you lied. I fear you lied to me. To get me to live.

Mama, and if you didnt then why did you yourself give up on your journey?

Mama, mama, all I see are marigolds.

I see no source of water nor does light touch this place.

Mama I fear that this is the end,

In this place with Marigolds where the sun does not show.

Mama I


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by Meghan Randolph

At my Grandmothers house

I used to collect reies.

I would gather them in my arms

And place them in mason jars,

Believing that somehowTheir luminescent heartbeats

Would ward off

The dark unknowns

Of a room

Unfortunately unfamiliar.

A room where Id sit

Knee-deep in memories,

Stuck on the possibility

That an eighth grade book report

And a sketchbook from 1983

Could somehow part theirGraphite lines

And offer up

My mother.

At my Grandmothers houseThey call me Suze

Because my face paints

Lines that are

Mirror images

Sought out only

To comfort a family

Missing a member.

But there is transparency

In my purpose.

Like the tiny reies innocently kept

To protect

Against all that cant even be seen,

I am just a faade.

Nostalgia plays tricks

On the eyes,

And life

Has a funny taste for irony,

So what is seen

Is just a mirage

Of what wants to be seen

At my Grandmothers house.

At my Grandmothers House

I used to collect reies.

I would gather them in my arms

And place them in mason jars.

But like all things do

At my Grandmothers house,

My reies are sinkingTo the bottom of the mason jar,

Fading with each pulse

Of their lights

Going

Out.


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by Nina Friend

Regret is the prison cellThat locks us behind steel

Leaves the key within our sight

A choice we cant repeal

Looking out the cell window

Sky churns stormy madness

Youd never see a rainbow

Your smile drooping sadness

Regret a single moment

The slow blink of an eye

Leaves you clinging to that moment

Keeps you wondering why

by Noah Mintz

Sitting, on the ground

They stay,A pair of shoes, once mobile

Now so forgotten and lifeless,

Brown, like leaves in Fall

Are they,

Laces tying together

The two too still empty shells,

The stitching on the sides winds

Its way,

Around the dark canvasLike treading to a churchyard,

These vacant vessels that carried

Through days,

Falling with each step,

Have fallen.


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by Meghan Randolph

Wind whispered

conspiracies in between her toes

when he opened the sheets up like

double doors.

Her eyelids uttered

to the beat

of his keys jangling towards

always leaving.When the breath

escaped the souls

of his feet,

her cheeks burned

like red lights on sallow skin,

sunken with broken promises.

But her bones couldnt stop

gossiping.

They chattered about

the love she thoughtshe made a verb,

and the words

tailgated red blood cells

through heart valves,

lling holes in with roses.

But roots cant breath in blood,

and owers always

wilt in winter.


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by Nicole Hunter

Dance, Dance little puppet

Dressed in blue and green

Twirl like re

Churns when fed on wood and esh

Dance until your arms and legs grow weary

And then dance some more

Until you realize that the voice speaking is not your own

And the strings attached to every part

Of your wooden body

Then suffer until the pain becomes too much

And the mind turns to mush.

Then with the last you have light it upAnd watch it burn.

Flecks of skin sizzle like strips of bacon

In the frying pan that your mama never made for you.

And my prince

The princess, and the king and queen

Will burn like

logs into a roaring ame

Watch it all turn to dust and know that you will not burn

Though the res leathery tongue will lick the

cheek singeing what used to be pristine wood.

Watch until the black pearls the master gave you

for eyes fall out and then smellThe ash youve created. Huff it like a coke addict

huffs snuff after a six month rehab program

And when you have gotten used to the scent

Then remember the sight, the smell and the sound of

your dearly beloveds scream

The maggots and worms will not come for you or the strings

attached to you instead they will eat around.

Everyone around you.

The coyotes will come and feast upon the

deeply cooked esh that used to be the man

You wereYoull hear the ripping ligaments and the rending of esh.

You shall not sleep, there is no respite for you here.

Then years from then when the land has

long since been repaired

And you stick out like a sore thumb

you will be whisked away

By the masters son.


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By Meghan Randolph

Flower children between the moons

Kicking off their shoes to feel their feet running

Free, stringing stars to adorn themselves in wild

Costumes, and breaking through

Unknown astronomical layers lost in the wild

Night sky. And while theyre running

Free, the night time dreams of moons;

Moons running wild

Through

Wild running moons


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Tali Halpern........................................................3, 13, 38

Halle Farago.................................................4, 5, 6, 7, 32

Nick Coetzee................................................................ ..6

Nicole Hunter..........................................7, 12, 20, 27, 42

Alexandra Harmel.........................................8, 10, 48, 49

Finnian Macmanus...................................................9, 25

Noah Mintz..............................................................11, 37

Patrick Hartman...............................................12, 33, 41Meghan Randolph.................................14, 15, 34, 39, 47

Ariel Kaufman..............................................................16

Eliza Mozer.............................................................17, 21

Andy Gordon..........................................................18, 19

Evan Silver........................................................22, 23, 43

Naomi Saito............................................................22, 23

Zo Sonnenberg............................................................24

Emily Lipson................................................................26

Chloe Slzas.................................................................28Hannah Figa................................................................29

Arielle Homer.........................................................30, 31

Lucy Svoboda...............................................................32

Rachel Tseng....................................................34, 35, 46

Lauren Wiebe...............................................................36

Caroline Carter.......................................................... .36

Nina Friend.................................................................37

Lucy Hartman.......................................................... ...40

Lily Homer.............................................................44, 45


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phaedrus 2011 issue #1

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