Summer 2015: Young Voices

Infinite Ink

Poetry by Meghana Mysore

No one is telling me what to write.
This pen possesses infinite ink.
These eyes possess infinite insight.
No one is telling me what to think.
This brain possesses infinite thought.
No one is telling my ears what to listen to.
These ears hear the sounds of
a thousand generations.
 
If, tomorrow,
I woke up as God, I would resign my position
immediately. I would not want to decide
the course of billions of lives; I would want
simply to hide. To be a crawling ant
in a forgotten crevice. To climb an unbounded
ladder, knowing not what waits
at the top. To be the serene water
in a stretching sea. To be a faraway star
in a distant planet. To glow with the force
of a billion beating human hearts
 
and believe that human potential is infinite.
 
No one told me to write this poem. No one
told my hands to type these words on this
keyboard. No one told me to gravitate
towards words as if they can sustain me
and no one told me that something, or someone,
limits my potential.
 
A destitute man
sits on the muddied concrete of the sidewalk.
Who am I to tell him that circumstance constricts him?
Who is Fate to limit his potential to a mathematical formula,
to the distance between point A and point B?
 
I believe his potential is infinite.
I believe that one day, he will rise
from the muddied concrete. One day,
he will rise and we will rise and we will know
that poverty exists only in the minds of those
who prize circumstance over infinite ink
and he will rise and we will rise and we will know
that A and B are just letters of the alphabet and we have yet to traverse
all this distance in between.

Poetry As hot as the summer sun, 13 poets breathe light into the darkness.		Prose Tending to the worn, imperfect edges of life, five writers grapple with perimeters.		Artwork Like a swarm of bees or a flock of birds: four artists layer meaning through detail.		Young Voices Four teens observe their world and put words to page like only young voices can.		Contributors From emerging to established writers – meet the women behind our seventh issue’s voices and visions.

LETTER FROM THE MANAGING EDITOR POETRY         One Gd At A Time by Stephanie Glazier         Gotcha by Darla Mottram         It's Ok To Be A Waterfall by Darla Mottram         Lot's Wife by Cindy St. Onge         Sailor by Sarah Bokich         Six More Weeks by Sarah Borsten         Here. Now. by Emily Ransdell         My Water Children by Emily Ransdell         Upon Finding the House Where Cousin Viola Lived During the Holocaust by Marilyn Johnston         Pornography by Tammy Robacker         Attention by Juleen Johnson         Levine Under Erasure by Juleen Johnson         Chief Joseph's Flute by Stella Jeng Guillory         Communion by Livia Montana         The Stars in Your Voice by Cindy Hines         How I Wasted My Life by Nancy Flynn PROSE         The Honor of Armadillos by B.E. Scully         Basket of Shells by Joanna Rose         How to Cure Cancer by Susan Fleming         Nobody by Judith Pulman         Concentric by Susan DeFreitas ART         Exoskeleton by Rachel Mulder         Give Up the Queen and Nobody Gets Hurt by Rachel Mulder         Give Up the Queen and Nobody Gets Hurt (detail) by Rachel Mulder         Put Me in Your Blue Skies by S. Tudyk         Time Grows Over Memories by S. Tudyk         Untitled Work in Paper by S. Tudyk         Mamas Day by Diana Bustos         Untitled by Diana Bustos         Release by Diana Bustos YOUNG VOICES         Somewhere by Danrong Wang         Runner by Sara Reed         Charcoal by Meghana Mysore         Infinite Ink by Meghana Mysore         Home by Kate Pippenger CONTRIBUTORS