ISSUE 14 | MAR 2012

INNOCENCE

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Thomas Gaflan

The Virgin Orgy: Queer Innocence and Online Sexuality

everyone looks at everything - I didn’t understand male submission - Quiz Bowl summer camp - men in diapers - play Monopoly with a chess set - « Crack Whore Confessions » - the act of being a woman - 15-year-old frilly - every single person is a fag

Michael Kinnucan

A Back Way Into Eden: Elaboration on Kleist

« trying too hard » - conformity with a rule - « His soul is in fact located (and it’s a frightful thing to see) in his elbow. » - physical grace and spiritual grace - Narcissus does not recognize himself - the tree of knowledge - kung fu movies

Ova Gray

Holding Weight

a sinkhole, a crevasse, something - a hideous thought - tragedy engenders innocence - nine years old again - « just lucky I guess » - a person’s absence - hourly, daily, weekly - I’m someone else now

Eliot D’Silva

“An illustration changes us”: Images of Innocence in John Ashbery

« totally regret life » - a more complete mimesis - « brittle, useless architecture » - rivers, parks and suburban homes - clogged by nostalgia - a sudden turn inward - the streets of New York with a dictaphone - « insidious giggles » - « the excitement of spring »

Ilya Schwartzburg

An Overt Act: The Rise and Fall of American Treason Jurisprudence

a drafter’s error? - what treason was - Corruption of Blood - obscure legal jargon - compass or imagine the Death of our Lord - The Treason Act of 1351 - new-fangled and artificial treasons - Timothy McVeigh - the « American Taliban »

Sarah Ackley

Picturing Abortion

Human Life International - sensational from our point of view - placing the thumb in the fetus’ mouth - photographs of dead fetuses - violent fetal death - Obama’s Culture of Death - « The child reached out, » I said - Could ultrasound become a weapon? - the stories of real women - « I had an abortion »

Nicholas Hiromura

Endnotes to an Ode on a Grecian Urn

history without footnotes - against all commentary - a very quiet bride - there is something more to the poem than just the poem - they are: the vessels - I think the town is a poem. - the melody closest to but not yet silence - What should have ravished her?