fall 2013
Table of Contents
Return to Home PageThe New Old Voice Jenni B. Baker
For the Directions The Future of Music Jen Currin
You Should Grow a Moustache William Doreski
The Unmanageable, A Cure Colin James
Engineering Processing Craig Kurtz
Brother Ellen MacDonald-Kramer
What Seems Solid Karen Neuberg
City Life: Citizen City Life: Summer Parties Laura Ritland
My son watching me smoke Sarah Roebuck
Testing Testing Is This Thing On Russel Swensen
Pitcher Scales Russell Thornton
You Should Grow a Moustache
You should grow a moustache to twitch
and stroke when dark ale bottoms out
in your pint glass. You should comb
your hair to conform to the sine wave
of your intellect. Casual talk
doesn't amuse. When I confront you
over a book about which we do
or don't agree I weigh every word.
Your eyewear frowns so narrowly
I wonder you can see through it.
Your green checked shirt, sleeves too long,
drapes you like a tent collapsed
on a boy scout. Can we befriend
the more relaxed parts of our minds,
or must we remain as brittle
as clamshells on a beach? A moustache
would soften your potential scorn,
tame it to fit a smaller space,
and would also filter the ale
that foams on your upper lip like
the memory of outgoing tide.
Now you're off to Erie, Cleveland,
Toledo, Chicago—straining
every muscle as you map a route
right over my wheezing farewell.
Must you always be so abrupt?
Our glasses leave rings on the table,
but in this ratty brown tavern
no one cares. Have a good trip,
and think about growing a moustache,
a tough, abrasive one like Stalin's
to both tickle and rule the world.