The Wake

The stage is full of them; writhing bodies mobbed by sexual energy. Heads are smothered in breasts, legs are flailing, and partners are swapping, each empty soul beckoning an invisible audience from any grim outside tragedies into their seedy underworld of hedonistic pleasure and delicious debauchery.It is not until the stage manager halts the singing and dancing to give notes that these assorted riffraff become University students once again, merely actors and actresses taking a break from their rehearsal of Cabaret, the closer for the University Theatre’s 75:20 Mainstage season. But when things are in motion and attention is held, …

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29th and Aldrich, 3:55 a.m. A pool of light illuminates a small brick building, abandoned, but for a sign taped to the door reading: Attention gangstas, pimps and prostitutes. YOUR TIME IS OVER! Night patrols starting NOW. To the right, a large plywood board covers a partly smashed window. Like a blank canvas it waits, taunting the artists that haunt empty corners and alleys, bringing them to life with a flurry of spray paint and brushstrokes.Ignoring the sign’s angry threats and the infrequent hum of traffic drifting from Lyndale Avenue, “27” sets down a backpack bulging with paint cans and …

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You wandered slowly downstream
throwing your gaze to the other shore.
Small wonder: you have always loved
your coastlines. You’d dart for a stone,
like a heron fishing, pluck and then weigh
it in your hand, smoothing away the sand.There are markings in the sand,
from somewhere younger in the time-stream,
another traveler on your way.
That day, you did not share the shore.
You sank through water, pretty stone
forgetting rivers you had loved.There, in twilight, it seemed no one loved
you, your hair soft and brown as sand
and all their eyes as flat as stones,
the ones …

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What follows
before the first word?
What tree’s dead falling fruit cracks
open upon the ground feeding
you seeds: the knowledge
of apples and gravity, falling
neatly into chalk outlines laid out
like a child’s school uniform waitingfor the word.
The knowledge—
waking dreams in pictures: the ghost
of Van Gogh’s ear
still hears
the color of morning
light at soundspeed racing
to your waking lucid
eyes, scratching sleep from your temple
with mother’s brooches—pearls
and dreams and unnatural
understanding. Cleanse
yourselfin a warm shower
you’ve been dirty so long
you’ve gotten used to your own
smell, …

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Someday when you are older, I will bring you to the forest
that I planted. I dug a whole for each tree and bade The Rains
to come. I made clear this is The Wood of My Son.You are that son.Each year, I return to that parcel of land. Now the trees
have branches that connect completely to each other branch.
If one tree decided to fall, they would all fall together.It is a no-wind zone. I willed it and made it so,
so that no other child’s breath would touch your trees.Only you.*In the years before the motor car, …

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Wading through a chest-high sea of easy prey,
dominating the crowding hall, she is foreign
in this place. The perfectly patterned lockers stretch
infinitely down the corridor. Monochrome
landscape, free of pheromones and vibrant
colors, anything exciting the emotions beyond
squeaking Florsheim shoes (overwhelming
all other sounds). Towering over the ten-year-old
saplings, she navigates the elementary orchardand patiently waits …
confidence manifested in her expression,
curiosity piquing her plucked eyebrows.She falls into a distant life, vividly removed,
she feels the itch of government issue bed sheets—
caustic sandpaper tissue against her face,
She looks up through her prison-patterned
telescope …

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I was conjured from constant boil,
boil
toil and trouble. Thick as molasses
from the center. The tree of knowledge brewed,
curling up and in
away a bubble grew.
Traveling out through arms of light
the finger tips of what
held me a slight.
For out of night I coddled this image:
utopian fields and day starred through
emeralds, eyes that watered
constantly. Until, became of me
bursting the day as fingers
broke free
which from no longer did I hang
like sap off the tree.
Sweetly and full of juice, an …

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The piano tapered at the seams
Filled over the strings
With water
Chocked thick
With Dust
From twenty years’ skin
And fingers shredding into oblivionLetting crimson seep
Through piano pores
Warbling the sound
Through the mic
To the mixerVarying the wave
As the liquid drains
And the muffling wanes
Allowing delay to emerge
From the bleeding thing
Thundering descending minors
In low registry
In strange timing
While shifting
From the strings to the keys
Mutilating fingers
Crying
With hair in his eyes
And emotions unsheathed

One of the most popular activities during the summer in Minnesota is to hop on a boat and go to any of the more than 10,000 lakes. People will spend the day on the boat lounging, drinking beer and maybe doing a little bit of swimming to get some exercise. Not the Water Ski and Wakeboard team. They head to the water four days a week to practice intense jumps and high-paced skiing and boarding, regardless of the weather. “There is nothing like being on the water, and the adrenaline rush is amazing,” says civil engineering junior Jonathan Raduenz, practice …

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Can’t you just taste the sunscreen melting down your face? Smell the hot dogs sizzling on the grill? Feel that summatime paycheck burning in your pocket? It’s April 12 and you know what that means. There are officially 18 days of school left, plus finals. Well, unless you’re thinking of taking summer classes, in which case April 12 just signifies the second day of registration—to sign some sunshine away.
“With summer classes you either have to have the interest in the class … or you have to be forced,” says neuroscience, physiology (pre-med), and French major Rami Assadi. Assadi …

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For almost ten years, Witt’s Liquor has been tucked snugly into the Park and Shop parking ramp on Seventh Street near Hennepin Avenue in downtown Minneapolis, offering off-sale libations to the patrons that walk the streets and work the businesses surrounding it. To be certain, any business dealing in the trade of “intoxicating liquors” is in for its fair share of bumps and bruises. It’s something the staff at Witt’s is quite familiar with. A lot of the customers are people fumbling with their luck. Many are homeless, quite a few are veterans living in the outskirts of society, and …

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With the growing independence that accompanies going off to college, students find themselves learning more than what’s taught in the classroom. Most people nowadays are spending more and more time operating in a world that they don’t truly understand—the World Wide Web. It can probably be safely said that most students don’t really know the nitty-gritty technical aspects of the Internet, but they have figured out how to instant message, create a Facebook profile, download songs, order textbooks and register for class.Of course, while an extensive knowledge of technology isn’t necessary to send an email, not really knowing what you’re …

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As some university students traveled to hot spots around the globe over spring break, many stayed in Minneapolis, confined indoors, as 2 feet of snow fell and temperatures hovered near 30 degrees. And while I watched nearly 25 hours of March Madness, I thought to myself, “Where’s spring?” I turned up the thermostat and threw another Pasta Roni in the microwave and dreamt of the day when I could remain outside for more than a half hour. Well, that time has come. The snow has finally melted and the winter coats have been packed away for good. The Minnesota spring …

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College students and 65-year-old men, in a closed off room, slap around balls. There’s no foul play here, this is the University of Minnesota Squash Club. The squash club is a group of roughly 50 athletes who meet three times per week to compete in a game that few people neither play nor know much about.Brief Overview of the Game Squash is a combination of tennis and badminton. The racquet used in the sport is about as long as a badminton racquet, but it’s as strong as a tennis racquet. There are two types of balls used in squash, …

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Laura Johnson is, well, kind of a big deal when it comes to gymnastics. Johnson, a journalism senior from Albuquerque, N.M., has been an All-Big Ten honoree four years in a row, making her the fourth Gopher in history to accomplish such a feat. This year Johnson was named Big Ten Gymnast of the Year and is currently ranked 25th in GymInfo National Rankings in the all around. The Wake: How did it feel to win the Big Ten for the first time since 1998?Johnson: It was so exhilarating. It is almost surreal. When you go in you’re not really …

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