Let it Go

2022 JAMES APPLEWHITE POETRY PRIZE SEMIFINALIST

BY DEAN MARSHALL TUCK

Somehow Tool became my favorite band –was it 1999? Prog rock, math rock, I’m not sure, but I knew there was a system, something about the golden mean, the Fibonacci sequence whispered into a nautilus, and it was almost satanic in its equations the way drums and bass and guitar did their own thing yet somehow arrived together at fixed moments, chaos courting order, and in one of those instants, when everything clicked, I couldn’t help but have a black stud punched below my lip, or buy matte cobalt rings for both my thumbs, a long chain for my wallet, wide pant legs, dingy denim, a skateboard, and black and white gradient tatts to grace my shoulder blades and biceps, all of these commerce for the macho, who throw up fists, and always smell like cigarettes, and end up in Charlotte for the weekend, and flunk Sociology midterms, and drink Rolling Rock and Milwaukee’s Best, and throw up in sewer grates, and graduate anyway, who disburse rental cars, until they begin selling insurance, and get married, and have babies and band reunions, and go back home, flip on Frozen for daughters, and feel choked up on the way to work, for the one who’s locked behind a door, a shrieking ice witch summoning her fractal ice palace shards in cascading spirals, always pointing inwards.

Root Three Spiraling Fractal, 2012 (metallic inks and prismacolor pencils on Lokta paper, 20x20) by Vandorn Hinnant

DEAN MARSHALL TUCK is a writer living in eastern North Carolina with his wife and daughters. His work can be found in various literary publications such as SmokeLong Quarterly, Fugue, and The Florida Review. He is currently finishing his first novel, Twinless Twin, which has been excerpted in Epoch and South Carolina Review. He is an English Instructor at Wayne Community College in Goldsboro, NC. VANDORN HINNANT is a painter, sculptor, poet, and educational consultant who resides in Durham, NC. He received a BA in Art Design from NC A&T State University and studied sculpture at UNC Greensboro. His art is in private collections in Africa, North America, and Europe, and in public collections across North America. He leads hands-on experiential workshops on “The Geometry of Art and Life” for learners of all ages. He has served as guest curator of exhibitions, as juror of many fine art competitions, and as guest lecturer at colleges and universities.