#katie clark

Nostrovia! Press is excited to announce our nominations for The Pushcart Prize:

• Alain Ginsberg @alainginsbergofficial – “on ‘shim’”
  
• Katie Clark – “february water”
  
• Joseph Parker Okay @josephparkerokay – “how many red caterpillars are in the world hold on let me count”
  

While we’re sharing these pieces with you, a final reminder that our 2017 Chapbook Series can be found as limited edition, pay-what-you-can printed chapbooks. 

But for now, enjoy these fantastic pieces:

on “shim”

Shim, noun, a thin strip of metal used
to align parts, make them fit, reduce wear /
I was first aware of the word in middle school,
how there was a need for a word and no one
to tell us it was not the right word, all interest
in aligning the parts to the idea of a body, make
fit, reduce, reduce, reduce /
Shim, noun, not quite a boy, not a real
woman / example / is that human,
that he-she, that shim /
example / she is not a woman for how
she believes herself to be, that’s a shim,
or, synonym, something flaming or,
synonym, combustible or, synonym,
to be laid onto a pyre or, synonym,
if you burn someone at the stake you will
gain five more minutes of warmth.

I research shim the same way I research
everything else; how long will it take
for me to die after being one?
A friend is followed by a military man,
which is to say someone who wishes for
Chelsea Manning to not pass out as
the flames lick her screaming mouth,
and the police pull my friend over,
let them be doused for how easily
the parts align / and
making a body fit into a machine
to be able to watch it leave you /

Shim, verb, wedge to fill space,
and we do so overcrowd this planet,
losing water, food, and autonomy,
and when the ocean drowns the land, whose
bones will we use to build boats of?
Whose going to fill the caskets or, synonym,
who will eat all of the bullets or, synonym,
who will we let ourselves consume when
the non-human animals perish or,

antonym,

I drift through crowds like a ghost,
I am a ghost, I am spectator or
spectre, or no one sees me in what
would not be called a campfire or
in this world the same pieces used
to align machinery will be used
to destroy it, to throw ourselves on
the cogs of that which kills,
when they see my body
burning the world, they will only
be able to call out
my name open-mouthed
and without breath.

——————————————————

february water

moves like milk does:
it doesn’t.

this was never something i picked out.
i just watched you walk across a lake, and it was
mid-winter,
      and so it happened.

i think today i loved you,
which is another way of saying
it doesn’t always happen in the order that it happened.

on monday,
i found my last-year body floating in the lake you walked across.
there was no reflection.
the lake has thawed and frozen over again,
and again, and she is less for it.
she was angry i cut my hair.

tuesday,
we are in the basement and you are holding spines.
i watch as they clean crooked
curl around your fingers,
alive, somehow, and not.
to think this was body, but now,
here in your hands: bone.
a week later,
there was my spine and how you held it,
but i don’t remember that part.  

wednesday,
i am still lying on your desk,
your hands and the projector light are
dewing over my shoulders like morning.
you kiss me even though my jacket

is orange and i like how the cold
tastes on you.

thursday,
a year after this, my partner reaches for me, but i no
longer have any bones. i’m trying to tell you
i think i know how the story ends now.

friday,
i don’t know what it means or what it doesn’t that i accidentally smiled at you
in passing. i heard you have a job that makes you grateful
and that makes me grateful.
i need you to know you did not ruin me.

what’s left of saturday:
gold glitter and whiskey spit.
my friend leaves, you stay,
we all regret this.

i was wearing my roommate’s basketball jersey.
i do not think i brushed my teeth before.
i remember it like this:
i don’t. i had breakfast.

you tell me i didn’t say yes,
but that we could try it again.
you said you didn’t have to tell me;
i hated you for that.

sunday,
i wake up with your body by my body
like a needed fact. it happened. it still
happens, but less now.  
the week starts over.
i think maybe this time,
i will pull myself out of the lake,
walk her home.

——————————————————

how many red caterpillars are in the world hold on let me count

nuyan is riding a bike through a forest. “i’m the frickin fastest bike rider in this dang ass forest” says nuyan. suddenly they hit a fallen tree and go flying thru the air. they do 13 flips before landing in the unsuspecting arms of a large, beautiful bear. the bear looks down and is shocked and immediately begins to weep. the bear has been alone and scared in this forest for so long and now she finally has a friend.

nuyan starts singing “crazy town” by ozzy osbourne to calm the beautiful bear down. and it works!! the bear actually starts singing along!!!!

and!! she has a beautiful voice!!!!

“wow” nuyan thinks to themself, “i could take this bear back to civilization with me and make a fortune taking her on day-time talk shows” but then instantly feels upset with themself and pushes the thought from their mind. 

nuyan knows their upbringing in a capitalistic society is to blame for intrusive thoughts like these. they have truly no interest in profiting at the expense of others and it makes nuyan sad to know that in the society they live it’s considered “subversive” to look at the beauty in the world and not want to exploit it.

the bear finishes singing the song and does a cartwheel. it makes nuyan feel 100% better. they tell the bear they will come back to see her tomorrow and then rides their bike away without holding onto the handlebars.

the beautiful bear is so extremely happy and sleeps 13 hours that night. while she’s asleep she has a dream that she’s in the dmv. the bear does 7 kick flips in a row and then pushes mongo out of the dmv. in the parking lot she does a 50-50 grind on the back bumper of hulk hogan’s stretch limo.

the bear skates to a nearby park and jumps off the skateboard. she walks over to a palo verde tree and starts licking it. 

“o wow” the bear says between licks. “i can’t believe this tree grows without any bark. it’s as if over millions of years of evolution it’s learned it can trust the world around it not to harm it and can now take the energy it would have used building defenses in ways that are beneficial to itself and its surrounding environment.”
all the tree licking makes the bear’s tongue dry so she walks over to the bubbler.

“‘bubbler’ is what people in specific parts of wisconsin call water fountains” the bear explains even tho there isn’t anyone around to hear her.

… weird .. …. it’s almost as if she knows she’s in a story and is aware there are probably some people reading the story who aren’t familiar with this specific regional jargon?

hmmm.

seems suspicious maybe.

the bear goes over to a park bench and continues talking to herself.

“wow” says the bear. “there’s so much we can learn from trees if only we’d start to pay more attention.” the beautiful bear falls asleep on the bench for 3 weeks and when she wakes up in the dream she wakes up in real life. the sun has just started to rise and the bear gets excited all over again when she remembers she’s going to have company today. she does 10 minutes of yoga and then goes out to find a large pinecone to give nuyan as a gift for being her new best friend.

the end

That’s James Duggar at the Katie/Travis wedding I think, right? So maybe Jer, James and Hannah were the only Duggars or almost-Duggars attending? I don’t see Josiah and Lauren or anyone else.. We know Joy, Jill and Justin weren’t there.