Wednesday, February 24, 2016 // The Statement Wednesday, February 24, 2016 // The Statement 4B 5B Bywater Squabble Eliza Cadoux Excerpted from Call Your Mom’s upcoming performance This Close Blanche hollers thinking I let the place go? I let the place go? Only it’s me And this isn’t Scene 1, and we are northerners In this humid city And I say thinking I’ll let you go? I’ll let you go? We rode bikes over And over Dark rings under your eyes I equated myself to a flame dancing wavering-nearly-going-out And you the wind Let’s fight and dance until the stubbornness of New Orleans saves us Little Sh*t By Adam Depollo Daily Arts Writer It was fifty degrees in Orlando today, so every smart person stayed inside. Bob sat in his room watching a news- man stand in the snow. I sat in the hotel lobby watching a middle aged man watching a newsman stand in the snow. I’m not sure if either of us enjoyed ourselves, but my sen- tence was longer. Later that afternoon, I sat in the jacuzzi reading “The Library of Babel,” which ends like this: I venture to suggest this solution to the ancient prob- lem: The Library is unlimited and cyclical. If an eternal traveler were to cross it in any direction, after centuries he would see that the same volumes were repeated in the same disorder (which, thus repeated, would be an order: the Order). My solitude is gladdened by this elegant hope. Mar de Plata, 1941. And so I turned to Jorge Luis Borges, who had insisted on wearing his three piece suit in the hot tub, and said —Jorge, didn’t you know that if you spent all day in the library, everything you wrote would come out covered in dust with a Dewey Decimal number? Borges pulled the Aleph out of his pocket and held it in front of my face, driving me insane for a moment until he placed it gingerly back into his jacket. Borges was blind, you know, so that was a fun little game he liked to play. He went back to making little splashes with his cane. —Adam, he said, I remember once walking by your father in a hallway at Michigan State — this was long before he had ever thought about having you, of course — and thinking to myself ‘I wish I had a little shit hanging around all the time to let me know when my prose gets dusty.’ The world certainly is an interesting place, wouldn’t you say? One never knows who’s listening. I started to get out of the jacuzzi, and Borges added — Little Shit, didn’t you know that if you spent all day in your own head, everything you wrote would come out covered in blood with a bit of brain attached? He started laughing, and I put my shirt back on. —You should probably take that off, he said. I think you need some sun. I can see you’re whiter than me! I walked away, and Borges shouted after me —And Lit- tle Shit, stop pretending to be Roberto Bolaño! Most Downloaded Woman of 2000 Eliza Cadoux LSA Junior 48K12.JPG, she’s a charmer she holds a pixel grin pixie limbs frame pink pearlescent nylon bikini fingers wrapped around her thong, she pulls up the sides to show that crook place between hip and leg this is why she is in demand downloaded in 2000 to the graces of laptop computers on which child plays on Microsoft paint and mother looks up shelters and motels and teen searches instructions for apple pipes 48K12.JPG, boxed looks over the boxed people and grins ad infinitum OK By Cammie Finch LSA Senior When you ask me “Are you OK?” you haven’t really asked me anything. What exactly are you implying? I wonder without asking because I’m too far lost in your tangled wood of acronymbleness. Am I … an ornery kid? (don’t sit me in time out this is our time now) an original Keats? (that’s right, bright star, I dare not breathe without you) an occupied kangaroo? (I’ve found my pouch, my cradle, my comfort - I’ve zipped it shut) an oceanic kebab? (substance disintegrating downwards, yet my skeleton structure floats on the surface. the shriveled remains of memory go along for the ride) an orangutan king? (crown of thorns eyes of wild heart of flaming orange spirit) an orbiting Kepler? (my head circles like Saturn circles around like Saturn circles around like Saturn circles around like Saturn) an omnipotent karma? (my presence tips the paint into your lap, swerves cars into your lane. my presence can make you rich, can make you pay) an obliterated kayak? (the rapids have gotten too rough, can’t you feel my plastic splinters digging into your hands?) an obdurate kazoo? (my mouth is plugged to spite you that’s what we instruments can do) an Orville kernel? (i’m ready to be transformed under pressure, watch me - i’m about to explode) I can be any OK you want me to be. I’m an overloaded kaleidoscope, twist me to see my colors change before your monochrome eyes. I can be any OK you want me to be - that is, with the proper specifications. OK? Nucleus By Katarina Merlini LSA Sophomore. I’ve grown weary of my treacherous heart for too long it’s sat vapid in my breast a thankless burden I could do without like a scythe cutting silk it whispers in the night the truths wound deeper than the lies with yellowed nails I dug in deep cracked through my ribs and slipped through sinew I pulled it out with an old coat hanger cleansed the wound with warm watered wine and sewed it closed with willow vines I’ve kept the withered thing in a mason jar filled with formaldehyde it’s grown an eye and watches me sleep sometimes I ask him what he’s called he has yet to answer me Mindfulness Cammie Finch, LSA Senior inhale … open your thighs wide like the pages of a book yawning their language into your head drink in the stillness lift your spine taller and prepare for the backbend (you are stronger than you think you are) envision the full moon washing the back of your head with its silken fingers, dripping its nectar down your vertebrae until your seat is warm in thought align your sacrum to this intelligent edge of backlit realism (it’s magical) breathe deeply into the beauty of asymmetry and savor your perfect state of being vulnerable (because i do). be aware of your breath: think - and then let it pull, like an unknitted cloud, away with your … exhale. ILLUSTRATION BY KELSI FRANZINO ILLUSTRATION BY KELSI FRANZINO ILLUSTRATION BY EMILY WATERS ILLUSTRATION BY EMILY WATERS