Asterisk Vol. 2

THIRDW O R D ’ S S E C O N D INSTAL L M E N T O F O U R MID-SE M E S T E R Z I N E .

A C O LLECTION OF P O E T RY AND PROSE W R I T TEN OVER S P R I NG BREAK.

“Gettin’ Real Sick of Useless Objects!”

by Jake Platt

2

“Like Milwaukee”

by Michelle Sharp

3

“Pears”

by Emily Bury

4

“Red-Face, Egocentric: Tweets I Didn’t Twat”

by Amy Trompeter

5

“Dust”

by Grace Mitchell

7

“Air”

by Stephanie Gage

8

“Untitled”

by Nicholas Kinsella

9

1

GETTIN’ REAL SICK OF USELESS OBJECTS!

by Jake Platt

My main complaints are diverse, so I don’t always need advice, Oscar Wilde.

I don’t have more.

I am ignorant, and my ship was what I need. Not. I don’t know.

I don’t even know.

Please name the four laws of thermodynamics without reference to the nonexistence of these truths Like 90% of asserting its flickering light, what a rough resemblance of something, life isn’t just a wish I was chewing while driving to/from school. It combines mystery, symbolism, narrative, nonnarrative abstractions and death because what’s next week?

0/5 on the bank, her hair knotted stomach. Thinking about taking occasional glances to it. I’m just going to quit smoking. I don’t condemn others for not.

Although I am astonished being here, I don’t condemn or approve of us, no.

When I’m trying to unexpress myself, I’m just hoping the milk and yogurt will decay the quickest. Some distinction! Sometime I hate my fucking guts, I used to reconstruct their sense of years. In fact some, if they noticed my absence, might feel an able-­bodied white masculine subject in bed all day. A wish. A desire, I hate lust, I hate the didactic tone a persons voice takes on when someone commits suicide every 40 seconds. Once Zhuangzi dreamt he cannot be trusted. Surface, surface, surface, surface was all the other. Very sick of the rocket's red glare, the hammer and the snake. We have fixed meaning. Nothing can never be more.

My life provided only an initiation into breaks and wires.

Cashed my hopes in and I’m almost done making trash.

I don’t have an addictive personality, but it’s difficult not to.

When you’re struggling, tell me.

I’m just starting to feel nice now.

This world could be okay.

2

LIKE MILWAUKEE

by Michelle Sharp

3

PEARS

by Emily Bury

A fruiting tree with no one to pick it its boughs grow heavy with a bountiful loneliness.

4

RED-FACE, EGOCENTRIC : TWEETS I DIDN’T TWAT

Alternative Title : Sentences which each distastefully include “I”

by Amy Trompeter

Die doing what you love, I hope I die drinking a beer in the shower.

I know now that true self-­loathing is trying on crop tops at Urban Outfitters on Black Friday.

This weekend I argued for my attraction to mustaches by saying my dad always had one when I was growing up. It didn't help my case nearly as much as it hurt it. I'm not even that in to mustaches.

I knew the manager at my job was a bitch when she told me I was too empa-­ thetic, a poor attempt at “hardening me to harsh realities of life”. I'm glad she got fired for going on a coke binge, because I never would have respected her anyway.

Christ, if I am compared to Lena Dunham one more time.* Someone seriously just said “Pinterest Research” I have been texting my mom about socks for five days.

The only time you hear “Tariff” is in history class.

When you go to an art school in Wisconsin, Bon Iver gets old really fucking fast.

Sometimes I say “you” but I really mean “me”.

Still trying to write a poem called “Ephemeral Sexcapades” -­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­ The problem with being attracted to someone at the laundromat is that my hands are full of dirty underwear.

The problem with being attracted to someone at the laundromat is that you're probably both pretty broke.

The problem with being attracted to someone at the laundromat is the Holly-­ wood cliche of love-­at-­first-­sight in conjunction with a mundane task.

5

7KH SUREOHP ZLWK EHLQJ DWWUDFWHG WR VRPHRQH DW WKH ODXQGURPDW LV WKDW KH࣭V ZLWK what  appears  to  be  a  girlfriend,  and  laundry  with  a  partner  signifies  a  somewhat  “seriousâ€?  relationship,  or  so  I  imagine.

-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­-­ "I  have  never  once  claimed  to  be  a  punk,"  she  stated  shamelessly  before  polishing  three  pairs  of  Doc  Martens. “Amazon  reviewers  appreciated  the  way  this  wax  kept  the  leather  moisturized  and  smooth.�

Upon  looking  up  synonyms  for  the  word  "penetration"  I  felt  like  a  bad  erotic  novelist.  I  question  why  "entrance"  wasn't  my  initial  response. &R ZRUNHU࣭V ³FKDUDFWHU´ GHVFULSWLRQ ZKLFK , FRPSOHWHO\ UHVHQW ³:LOO \RX ORRN DW that!  Cute  little  girl,  totally  rocking  the  nerd  look,  but  then  you  look  down  and  VKH࣭V ZHDULQJ D SDLU RI IXFNLQJ VKLW NLFNHUV ´ I  might  be  most  attractive  In  the  Spring,  but  Tuesdays  are  my  personal  best.

I  have  been  deathly  afraid  of  steam  rollers  since  seeing  “Who  Framed  Roger  Rabbit�  as  a  child.  This  fear  only  exists  in  the  physical  presence  of  a  steam  roller,  and  given  the  unlikely  nature  of  such  a  situation,  I  suppose  I  can  hardly  categorize  it  as  a  notable  fear  of  mine.

Sometimes  I  have  to  transcribe  my  own  handwriting  in  to  type  just  to  think  about  it  clearly.

He  is  in  to  thrash  metal,  but  I  am  more  partial  to  stoner  doom  metal.  We  have  different  kinds  of  anger.

Maturity  is  a  human  construction,  and  this  is  how  I  am  rationalizing  my  own  immaturity. *Making  this  “textâ€?  public  only  strengthens  this  comparison.  However,  I  would  DFFHSW Âł0HJDQ %R\OH RQ IHZHU GUXJV´ ZLWK D VWUDLJKW IDFH EXW PD\EH WKDW࣭V HYHQ worse.

6

DUST

by Grace Mitchell

While  sitting  at  the  table  I  was  raised  at,  I  find  it  difficult  to  write  without  reflection.  Life  seems  only  viewable  through  retrospection.         Right  now,  or  back  then,  rather.

Hard  to  find  the  words  for  such  a  feeling,

VR LQGHVFULEDEO\ VR ZKLOH DOVR VR IDPLOLDU **  * The  hallway  my  mom  walks  down  every  morning  and  night.  My  eyes  pretend  to  be  hers  only  to  feel  closer.

I  try  to  fit  my  feet  into  hers-­     her  shoes  are  too  big.

Mom’s  dusty  venetian  blinds hazelnut  coffee  still  warm &ORVHW ILOOHG ZLWK FKLOGKRRG UHOLFV EDE\ FORWKHV , VHH P\VHOI DGRUQHG LQ in  photographs  now  faded.  ERDUG JDPHV VHDVKHOOV KRW JOXHG WRJHWKHU KRPH YLGHRV D EHDQLH EDE\ polar  bear  with  angel  wings  and  a  halo.

The  refrigerator’s  magnets,  inspired  by  Frank  Lloyd  Wright.  Mugs  that  she  has  met  with  her  lips,  the  lipstick  stain  on  its  rim  (ﴞI  imagine)﴿, Stools  once  taller  than  myself,  the  smell  of  her  conditioner-­  maybe  I’ll  get  that  same  conditioner,  it  is  sold  at  Walgreens.  I  see  it  often.       ** I  feel  like  I  am  occupying  a  memory,  the  sensations  to  real  to  comprehend  EXW YLYLG OLNH D OXFLG GUHDP Hair  in  her  brush  by  the  sink  smudged  with  toothpaste  that  was  in  her  mouth.

A  vase  filled  with  miniature  airplane  wings,  a  Santa  Claus  mug,  dying  houseplants,  incense  ashes   still  smells  like  “The  Mountain  Rangeâ€?  (ď´žpine  and  smoke)ď´ż On  the  stereo  is  a  flute  from  Mexico,  aged  13  years.  I  put  my  mother  over  its  piece  as  if  it  was  a  portal  to  deeper  times  but  all  I’m  left  with  is  dust.  Thoughts  of  cremation Â

Â

Specifically  cremated  parents

I  once  read  on  a  poster  that  people  who  want  to  revisit  the  past  are  depressed  and  those  who  want  to  go  into  the  future  are  anxious  and  that  one  is  only  at  peace  when  living  in  the  moment.  I  don’t  know.  * 7

AIR

by Stephanie Gage

I’m thinking of everything I don’t know about yet and where my steps fall in the passage of time, and whether they clunk and tumble or get caught in the snares of the fabric of it or maybe drift slowly, apathetically It’s dark here;; my head is spinning a bit from all this, a culmination, and perhaps it’s something to do with the claustrophobia even though I’ve never been claustrophobic in my life.

8SGDWH LW¶V KD]\ QRZ EXW , FDQ VHH VRPH DPRUSKRXV SDWFKHV RI OLJKW WKDW perhaps could be cities beneath the clouds. I think this is better than clear air.

8

UNTITLED (2)

by Nicholas Kinsella

swimming in the smallest ocean you can imagine in tiny swells washing across your micro-­wave dinner

1

i will gun you down on the sidewalk of a minimart i’ll be a crazed soccer mom and you be a disappointing son

1

PUBLISHED BY THIRDWORD IN 201 4 DESIGNED BY STEPHANIE GAGE