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Pfeiffer University

MIsenheimer, North Carolina

The PhoenixFall 2011

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The PhoenixFall 2011

Pfeiffer University

Misenheimer, North Carolina

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Pfeiffer Phoenix 4

Cover Photograph by Kirsten Bragg

The Phoenix 2011

Reproduction of any material within this publication is prohibited

without consent of the artist or author of that particular work.

Pfeiffer Phoenix 47

The catfish, however, remained in place. Dodge took

his penknife and pried up several kernels of corn. He

dropped them one at a time into the water, but the

fish ignored the corn, which slowly fell to the bottom

of the stream. After five minutes the fish swam away,apparently realizing that there would be no more fal-

ling mice, at least that day.

The three decided it was time to leave, but Dodge

decided he wanted a souvenir. After looking around

for ten minutes, he discovered an old large porcelain

sign that read Baker Bros. Roller Mills just inside the

front door. This he took home and hid in the crawl

space adjacent to the half-basement in his house.

Years later after his mother died, Dodge went back to

her house to clean out her possessions, and he found

the old mill sign he had hidden many years before.

The old mill is gone now, destroyed after it caught

fire in what was thought, but never proven, to be ar-

son. Dodge was home at the time, and against his

mothers wishes he went to watch the fire. He be-

came almost mesmerized by it, and he seemed to

hear squeaking above the crackle of the flames.Shortly after that, the stream was diverted and town-

houses built over the entire area.

As Dodge contemplated the sign he had hidden,

his mind went back to the fire and the squeaking he

had heard.

It must have been the souls of those poor mice he

fed to the fish!

- Dr. John Grovesnor

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Pfeiffer Phoenix 46

one of the mice only to see it suddenly disappear in

front of him. He investigated and found that the

mouse had fallen through a hole made when a knot

in the floorboard had come loose. He looked down

just in time to see a catfish grab the swimming mouse

and submerge with it.

Dodge looked back to see an incredible sight:

some 25 mice seemed to be staring at him as if they

dared him to chase after them. He looked back

through the knothole to see something just as odd: a

slew of catfish swimming below the hole, perhaps at-

tracted by the first fishs prize, as if they were all wait-

ing to be fed. Dodge and his two buddies decided to

see how many of the mice they could chase throughthe knothole and into the drink. The two friends kept

the mice away from the doors, but Dodge was un-

able to direct any of them toward the knothole. The

mice seemed to sense that one of their kind perished

there, so they avoided that part of the room. After

keeping up this game for some 30 minutes, one of

Dodges friends became impatient and whacked

one of the mice with a board he found outside.

Dodge picked up the dazed mouse by the tail and

dropped it through the hole for another waiting cat-

fish. The three boys spent another half hour chasing

and hitting mice with boards until they had fed 18

more of the mice to the fish.

By this time, the remaining mice had retreated out

the doors and into the fields adjacent the mill, with

the exception of one hapless mouse that ran into the

road in front of the mill and got run over by a car.

Pfeiffer Phoenix 5

Photography Staff

John Borza

Josh Mullis

Reggie Hollinger

Letter from the Advisor

Another step in the ongoing evolution of the Pfeiffer University liter-

ary magazine, The Phoenix, has transpired. In keeping with current

trends in publication, the staff is transforming from print format to

an e-zine with plans for an annual print publication that celebrates

the best of the best. The 11-12 staff, listed below, is creating an

online presence linked to Pfeiffers Web Site that includes the cur-rent publication, archives of previous publications, a blog, and an

opportunity for readers to respond. As their advisor, I congratulate

them on taking ownership of the process and completing the

transformation within the confines of one semester.

-Sylvia Hoffmire-

there were creative writing teachers long before there were

creative writing courses, and they were called and continue to be

called editors. Kurt Vonnegut

Editor Kayla Lookabill

Production Editor Stacy Deese

Asst. Editor for Poetry Cynthia Dick

Asst.. Editor for Fiction/Non-Fiction Joleen Hill

Asst. Editor for Art/Photography Brittany Loder

Poetry Staff

Arsena Schroeder

Tabatha Shue

Kane Hathcock

Fiction/Non-Fiction Staff

Brynne Lippard

Stephanie Nants

Kaitlin Welch

Faculty/Staff Readers

Dr. Kristy Embry

Paula Morris

Dr. Gerald Neal

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Table of Contents

The Qualities of Silence

Sunrise in January

If Life Was A Staircase

Managua

Trouble Ride

Kaleidoscope

The Seen Untold Story

The O Train

Everywhere

New Focus

Something Beautiful

Dr. David Palmer

Brittany Loder

Lindsay Sisco

Kirsten Bragg

Cynthia Dick

Tabitha Shue

Jarvis Wardsworth

Jordy Carson

Kaitlyn Mullis

Matthew Effinger

Morgan Barnes

Pfeiffer Phoenix 45

after Dodges 12th birthday his father died.

Dodge and his mother visited the mill sporadically

after that, but since nobody else in the household was

a great fan of cornbread, she eventually quit going.

Within two years, the mill had closed. During the next

three years, Dodge would often dream about going

down to the old mill to snoop around. Sometimes in

the dream there would still be customers inside, and at

other times there would be a watchman who would

chase after him and threaten to have him sent to re-

form school for trespassing.

Then one day at age 17, Dodge and two of his

friends were in the woods picking blueberries whenthey got lost. After walking for an hour in the woods,

they came to a stream. They followed the stream for

about 15 minutes when they came to a clearing. Not

500 feet ahead was the old grist mill. As the three ap-

proached the building, Dodge sensed a flurry of activ-

ity inside. His mind went back half a decade as he

imagined entering to see customers buying cornmeal

and petting the tomcats. The door to the old mill was

open, so the trio went inside to find that the activitywas not the result of the ghosts of customers past. In-

stead, the old mill was overrun with mice! There were

mice in the sales and storage rooms and even more

mice in the milling room. That was why the owners kept

the two cats in the mill while it was in operation. There

were still unopened bags of corn in the milling room

and kernels of corn stuck between floorboards. Some

of the bags had already been gnawed open, and all

of that corn attracted rodents. Dodge chased after

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Pfeiffer Phoenix 44

There was nearly always at least an element of truth

in the stories. Moose have been known to charge

trains, but in the few known cases they were merely

knocked to the side. Muskellunge, or muskies, are car-

nivorous fish that have been known to eat young wa-terfowl, but a fully grown goose is something else. Peo-

ple have been known to drive out on the Great Lakes

when the lakes were frozen, and Lake Er ie does be-

come entirely frozen over about once each decade;

however, its probably not enough to hold up the

weight of an automobile. Although Dodge said that he

had a newspaper clipping of his apprehension, he was

never able to produce the clipping.

Dodges most believable tale concerned his own

father Ellis Elder. Ellis loved cornbread but insisted it be

made from freshly-picked corn. Store-bought corn-

meal, he claimed, was made from what he called

dead corn. Dodge went each week with his mother

to a local mill that jutted out into a stream so clear that

he could see catfish swimming around. There were usu-

ally fisherfolk on the other side angling the fish. The mill

was always busy, and Dodge marveled at the 19thcentury mill and its beautiful finely-grained floorboards.

People waiting in line could pet two handsome mar-

malade tomcats that flanked the checkout desk, one

on each side. Dodge said that he didnt understand

the significance of the cats at the time. Sometimes,

Dodge would go into the milling room, where patrons

and their children could watch the millstones at work

grinding the corn. At any rate, Dodge and his mother

would make the trip faithfully each week until shortly

Pfeiffer Phoenix 7

Peony

Monster

Feed

The Hour

Occupy

Pink Ribbons

TS3

Education, For

Granted

City Hall

A Catfish-and-Mouse

Game

Jingzhuo Li

Brittany Loder

Brittany Loder

Stephen Schroeder

Kirsten Bragg

Hailey Starnes

Tabitha Shue

Kaitlyn Mullis

Kirsten Bragg

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The Qualities of

Silence

The qualities of silences are many and yet,

Each one has a surprisingly different effect.

The qualities of silences are such that I find

Every silence has a different impact on my mind.

There was a silence, and I filled it with noise.

The conversation stalled, so I piped up my voice.

But there are moments in which silence is my friend.

Every earthly rest prepares us for that silence at the end.

Some silence is welcome; some silence is sad.

Like the end of a noise or losing a friend that we had.

Like losing ones voice after having too much talk.

Just having a rest after having a long squawk.

After the power goes out when theres been too much

TV.

--After the gunfire stops, and enemies agree.

After the vitriol gets caught in their throats.

After the music stops when thereve been too many

notes.

Pfeiffer Phoenix 43

A Catfish and

Mouse Game

Dodge Elder was quite a teller of tales. People lis-

tened attentively but among themselves wonderedhow he thought they could believe such ridiculous

stories. Dodge was a bright enough guyhe earned

an MS degree in Physics from an institution in Cleve-

land, Ohio and taught physics at a small college

but he always insisted these stories were true. One

claim he made was that he saw an eagle swoop

down and carry off a newborn fawn. Another was

about a flying moose: he claimed that once in

Maine he saw a bull moose charge a train, and thecollision propelled the moose into the air in a para-

bolic arc to a height of 80 feet and a horizontal dis-

tance of some 300 feet. One of his most dubious ani-

mal stories was his claim of a muskellunge grabbing

an adult Canada goose by a foot and dragging it

the length of a large pond until it was pulled under

water and drowned. He even claimed that during

one bitter winter while he was working on his Mas-

ters degree, Lake Erie froze over completely. After

he finished his final first-semester exams, he and a

friend got drunk and decided to drive across the

lake in his 1951 Mercury sedan. When they got to the

Canadian side about 4 AM they were greeted by

Ontario police, who detained them until 3PM that

afternoon and had them escorted all the way to

Windsor, Ontario so they would not be tempted to

go back across the lake. They didnt get back to

Cleveland until 3 PM the following day.

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City Hall

- Kirsten Bragg

Pfeiffer Phoenix 9

When you love the one youre with, and silence is

enough.

When the talk show host goes off the air, and they finallyshut up.

When you go to the country, and you cant hear cars

any more.

When the lump of lard turns over, and you cannot hear

them snore.

Yahwehs in her holy temple; let all the earth be silent.

Be still before the Lord; let go of sonic violence.

Un moment de silence aprs le tempte.

At the end of the song, the fade out to rest.

The qualities of silences are many and yet,

Each one has a surprisingly different effect.

The qualities of silences are such that we find

Every silence has a different impact on our mind.

-David Palmer

Department of Music

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Pfeiffer Phoenix 10

Sunrise in January

- Brittany Loder

Phoenix Staff Member

Pfeiffer Phoenix 41

Works Cited

1. Burrell, Jackie. "Sobering Statistics on College Students

and Alcohol Use: The Impact on

Your Freshman." About.com. 2008. 23 Oct 2008

.

2. Ellis, Deborah. Women of the Afghan War. Westport,

Connecticut: Praeger Books, 2000.

3. Mortenson, Greg, and David Oliver Relin. Three Cups of

Tea. 1st ed. New York: Penguin

Books, 2006.

4. "Transition to College." IES: National Center for Educa-

tion Services. 2006. Census Bureau.

23 Oct 2008 .

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Pfeiffer Phoenix 40

comes back, it will still be there. After all, if education

were a stopwatch, wouldnt it be tempting to stop

time, go enjoy yourself for a weekend, and come

back whenever youre ready to press the start button

again? It seems that this would be an opportunityevery student would take, and many students do. The

students growing up under the oppression of the gov-

ernment cannot, and while it is not the American stu-

dents fault, it remains his responsibility to appreciate

every minute of education he receives, and to never

push the button on the stopwatch to make it slide to a

halt, even if it is temporary and harmless.

This is the last story, and it is short. Feyba is a seven-

teen-year-old young lady from Kabul, living with her

mother and two brothers in Pakistan for the past six

years. Her family dislocated from Afghanistan for the

same reason that the schools in Kabul were closed

because of the war. (Ellis 136)

Education means everything to me, Feyba says.

She says if she could say one thing to other people her

age, it would be this: If they have the chance for an

education, they should work as hard as they can, be-

cause not everyone has the chance they have. (Ellis

137)

- Kaitlyn Mullis

Pfeiffer Phoenix 11

If life was a staircase

which way would you look?

Would you look to the

bottom or the top?

Would you look

to see how far the top

is from the bottom, or

how far the bottom

is from the top?

Would you rather take

one step at a time to the top,

or just use the escalator,

which can bring you down just as quick?

If Life was a Staircase

- Lindsay Sisco

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Managua

- Kirsten Bragg

Pfeiffer Phoenix 39

After the Taliban, women hardly venture outdoors.

Amongst other laws against the women of Afghanistan,

the rule that forces females to wear a burqa is the most

hated, and the most widely enforced. If even a hand

should show, a woman is beaten down in the middle ofthe street. The Taliban target educated people in par-

ticular, forcing them to quit their jobs, which cut their

families off financially to the point where the parents

become beggars and the children are set back even

farther from their longing to go to school (Ellis, 60-65).

While it is now plain to see why American students

take their education for granted, it has been made

equally difficult to learn of the struggles of the Afghani

people, especially in contrast with the average Ameri-

can student. The fact that we Americans fail to take full

advantage of our opportunities to take a firm hold of

education while others scratch helplessly at the dirt in

an insatiable hunger to learn is quite a bitter pill to swal-

low, as it should be. If our democracy should crumble,

and the rights to an education were stripped away, we

would become terribly aware of the situation in Af-

ghanistan. Perhaps, then, American students would be-

come capable of appreciating education the way

they should, and maybe this would be the only way to

do so, since the fact that their schooling is readily avail-

able has been engrained into a young persons mind

and personality since they were four years old.

When one knows that something, or rather every-

thing, is sitting on a table and never will be taken away,

it may become understandable for him to ignore it for

a while, to take care of it later, because when he

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Pfeiffer Phoenix 38

become more and more enticing, offering alcohol

and drugs that allow a tough week in frustrating stud-

ies to melt away almost instantly. The social scene of

the party is all too much for a young adult to resist. In

a students mind, it makes no difference whether

they party on a Saturday night instead of studying for

midterm exams. It is America, after all, and it is the

land of opportunity. No one is going to take that op-

portunity away from a young person. They can study

for midterms the following Sunday, and the exams will

still be there in the coming week. Education will still

there when they go back to school on Monday.

The idea of the omnipresent chance at education

that swims around in the head of a student may betrue, but it is not the right mindset for a young person,

and not all students are able to enjoy that kind of atti-

tude. School-age children in the war-torn countries of

Afghanistan and Pakistan have lost all hope at gain-

ing an education. Before the Talibans takeover, chil-

dren in Afghanistan went to school as usual, usually

going on to graduation and college. Now, schools

have closed down due to lack of funding or because

they have been destroyed by the effect of the war.The Taliban have made it against the law for girls or

women to attend school. Any female that attends

school is punished, usually by torture or execution.

Even before the Taliban took control, girls were usu-

ally forced to quit school by their families and en-

tered an arranged marriage with a man they have

never met before. Girls as young as thirteen were

sworn into marriage and started families, spending

their adolescent years in the repetitive duties of a

Pfeiffer Phoenix 13

Trouble Ride

On June 12th, in the year 2000, a desperate

man by the name of Nascimento got on a bus in Rio

de Janeiro and took its passengers hostage. Five

days later, on June 17th, 2000, my mother, my two

brothers, and myself got into my Daddy's car, and

were taken hostage. The passengers on the bus

couldn't have possibly known what was going to hap-

pen to them that day; undoubtedly they were just

along for the ride, from one place to another, com-

pletely unsuspecting of the man who would get on

bus #174 and change their lives. I should consider

myself lucky, then; I knew from the moment Daddy

opened his mouth that morning and said, let's get inthe car and go somewhere, that we weren't just go-

ing for a ride.

Just as it's normal for people to get on a bus, it

was normal for my family to take rides. Coming from

somewhere, going to somewhere, if there was extra

time, we would just ride. But this kind of ride was dif-

ferent. This was a trouble ride. When I was eleven

and I didn't like my Christmas presents, Daddy took

me for a trouble ride. It wasn't a ride from somewhere

or a ride to somewhere; it was a ride to trap your ass

right there so he could say whatever needed saying

without you escaping. It's really ingenius, if you give

the notion some thought. You can't run away from a

moving vehicle! Nascimento and my Daddy are wise

kinds of men, in that way.

But, on June 17th, I wasn't eleven, and it wasn't

Christmas. I was thirteen and it was Father's Day. I

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Pfeiffer Phoenix 14

was thirteen and it was Father's Day and it wasn't just

me in the car, or just Granseur or just Jonathan, or just

Daddy and Momma for that matter. It was all of us,

and Momma wasn't talking and she didn't look happy

and this was most certainly not one of our usual rides.It was a trouble ride, I could tell, and he was taking

the whole family along on leather seats and too

much air conditioning and all of us sliding around with

the curves, not bothering to grasp for the wahoo

bars because we didn't go very far. We just went

down Badin Road to Guard Road, or maybe we went

down Badin Road to Momo Road and then he took

us up Valley Drive. Or, maybe I wanted him to take us

down all those roads and never tell us why we were inthe car, but he didn't. He just turned left out of the

driveway, and turned right onto the Kirk property and

bumped us up and down on the dir t road back to

that old house at the edge of the woods with the rot-

ting tire swing and the broken down porch and no

cornerstone to hold that house up. How far did that

bus go, before Nascimento expressed his intention? I

remember reading that the route traveled through an

upper-middle class neighborhood, and I wonder if he

rode along for a while, letting the bus make a couple

of stops and allowing the passengers to remain com-

fortable. Or, if like Daddy, he took the short route,

and laid it on them quick.

It must've been early, because we got out of

the car and it wasn't hot yet. Actually, it was beauti-

ful. The sky was blue, the sun was shining, and the

breeze was making those delicate patterns as it kissed

Pfeiffer Phoenix 37

school-aged kids to the term college fund. Once

students hit high school, everything is about the next

step to the university. They are encouraged to get in-

volved in student government, because it looks great

on a college transcript if someone has held the title ofstudent body president or class treasurer. Honor socie-

ties such as the Beta Club and the National Honor So-

ciety exist for the sole reason to push students into col-

lege. Classes become weighted, preceded with the

words such as Honors and AP, or advanced place-

ment. If one should take an AP class and receive a

high score on the official AP exam, they earn college

credit. Athletics are important, whether someone is

striving for an athletic scholarship or the sport be-comes just another bullet in a student resume. Dozens

of other extracurricular activities are scattered across

a high school campus, just waiting for the high school

student to join, using the mantra that it looks good on

a college transcript to lure them in. After three years

of this, students move into their senior year. Applica-

tions are sent off to universities, and the wait begins for

the admissions office to send acceptance or denial

letters. Worse still, the letter could place the studenton the waiting list, and more anticipation builds. Fi-

nally, after thirteen years, the students graduate and

move off to college, where in the first week, they are

usually asked about their intentions for graduate

school. Education continues, just as expected.

It is easy to see how students can place their edu-

cation on the backburner. They become weary of the

monotony that school presents, and they long for a

break in the habits of the typical school week. Parties

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Pfeiffer Phoenix 36

education that is bypassed multiple times. There are

young adults elsewhere in the world that would love

to have a chance to write the rest of that neglected

essay, pour over chapter after chapter of the text-

book, and sit in that temperature-controlled class-room, away from the sweltering heat of the desert sun

or the sub-zero winds that rip through the harsh land-

scape of their hometown.

Education is made readily available to todays

American students. From the time they are very young

to the time they walk out of graduate school with their

doctorates degree, students in the United States are

fully aware and used to the fact that their right to an

education will never be stripped away. They live a life

where there is no doubt where they will be pressured

to spend the four years that follow their high school

graduation. As of 2006, the percent of high school

seniors who enrolled in college the autumn following

their high school graduation was sixty-six (Transition to

College 1). Students walked into their kindergarten

classroom surrounded by colorful posters that claimed

The Sky is the Limit! and teachers that assigned pa-

pers that had the title What I Want To Be When I

Grow Up. These kindergartners grew up, and moved

through elementary school with the promise of at-

tending a middle school soon after.

Middle school is where students are first bom-

barded with the idea of college. Parents encourage

their children to make excellent grades in practice for

high school, so that the university they apply to will be

impressed. They may even introduce their middle

Pfeiffer Phoenix 15

each strand of wheat and moved on to the next. I'm

sure it was hot in Rio de Janeiro, where the bus full of

people was still awkwardly trusting that each rider

was simply going about his usual way. I'm sure it was

hot there, but it was a rare, cool-ish June morninghere in North Carolina, and we were all walking

around, trusting, or hoping, that this was just a pause

in a ride to somewhere or from somewhere. Let's sit, I

want to talk to y'all for a while, Daddy said, and I

imagine Nascimento probably requested something

similar of his bus passengers. I wonder if they stayed

in their seats, or if there was a hero who would stand

when asked to sit. Momma, did she sit on a fence?

And Jonathan and Granseur and me, where did wesit? Maybe we didn't sit but we were all there, to-

gether, and Daddy told us that Momma and he had

decided that they couldn't live together anymore

and that he was going to be staying at Mawmaw's

for a little while. I read that Nascimento told his pas-

sengers how he had had no where to l ive, that he

had nothing. I read that he told his passengers that

he had nothing and he needed their money, that he

had no intention of hurting anyone.

When we got back in the car, Daddy told us

that it didn't mean that he didn't love us, but we knew

that, so he told us that it didn't mean that he didn't

love our mother. He didn't want anyone to be hurt,

he just wanted to be honest. Then, he did turn right,

on Badin Road, and then right taking Guard Road to

Burd Road. Right again he turned onto Valley Drive,

and right on Momo Road. He just kept turning right

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Pfeiffer Phoenix 16

and there we all went in a circle when I damn well

knew that not one of us still wanted to be in that car.

We were trapped in there with poor Daddy trying to

hold on to what it was l ike to all be together and it be

okay. Those hostages were trapped on that bus with

Nascimento trying to hold on to the last option he

thought he had. Daddy took us on a trouble ride and

no matter how many right turns he made, he couldn't

make it right, and that was sad. It shouldn't have been

his fault, and he shouldn't have felt guilty, but you can't

go on a trouble ride and expect it to come out right.

Nascimento got on a bus and no matter how long he

held those hostages, it wouldn't fix his life. And that was

sad, but it didn't make it right.

- Cynthia Dick

Phoenix Staff Member

Pfeiffer Phoenix 35

the weather outside. They do not think of Benazirs

heartbreaking situation in Afghanistan as they sleep

through their morning classes. They do not think, as

they daydream in the middle of a lecture or doodle in

their notebooks during presentations, about theteacher-less children in a faraway village in Korphe,

Pakistan who scratch their multiplication tables into

the dirt that they sit on with sticks (Mortenson 35).

These children did not have a teacher because the

Pakistan government has no money left over from

their military budget, they wrote in the dirt with sticks

because their families cannot afford school supplies,

and they were outside on a cold winter day because

there was no school. The last sentence was written in

past tense because a man named Greg Mortenson

risked everything to build a school for them.

Why do American students take education for

granted?

To take for granted, in a sense, means to gradually

lose gratitude for something or someone. Education,

however, is not something or someone. It is everything.

Education is everything that holds open the door to alife lived to the fullest. What constitutes as education

being taken for granted, therefore, can be as small as

education not being taken full advantage of. A stu-

dent that walks past a neglected half-written essay on

his way to the door to meet his friends for a night-long

quest to pick up girls, or the history textbook that

never gets read, or the mark beside somebodys

name that symbolizes absenteeism due to a vicious

hangoverthese are all examples of an opportunity

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Pfeiffer Phoenix 34

has missed her morning classes and has too much of a

headache to attend her afternoon class, for which she

has not finished her homework anyway.

This is not a true story in the traditional sense, but

based instead on the growing statistic of college stu-

dents that go out every night looking for a good time,

no matter what cost it has on their academic life. The

Core Institute, which in 2005 surveyed 33,379 under-

graduates on over fifty United States campuses, found

that 31% of college students missed a class due to al-

cohol, 22% failed an exam or essay, and roughly

159,000 of the nations current freshmen will drop out

of school because of alcohol or drug use (Burrell 1).

It is hard not to wonder, in the light of these con-

trasting stories, what Benazir would say to the young

girl in the second story. There is a terrible amount of

things she could say, but it would be enough for her to

just shake her head and look away. There are thou-

sands of women where Benazir lives that would under-

stand this reaction. Their desire for education is so im-

mense that they often compare having no education

to having no life. Without it, they are forced to liveslived monotonously indoors, where venturing outdoors

means wearing the burqas under the threat of vio-

lence from the Taliban.

American students, however, continue to suffer from

the disease of not understanding. They spend their

days sitting in spoiled splendor, lounging in desks inside

well-equipped classrooms with fluorescent lights shin-

ing overhead and temperatures that can be made

warmer or cooler by a single degree, depending on

Pfeiffer Phoenix 17

Kaleidoscope

-Tabitha Shue

Phoenix Staff Member

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Pfeiffer Phoenix 18

The Seen Untold

Story

The love for the game never changed

started off as a kid grew into a burning flame

Pull through every time I see their names

live life fear nothing reminds me to never change

Things happen which become mental note

I rise up with a personal prayer and a quote

Which lets me know I conquer any obstacle

chase after my dreams knowing anythings possible

Showing homage to a city close to my heart

I feel I can do it all through this musical art but

most people say it is absurd because they only

see it as body art and ink words.

- Jarvis Wardsworth

Pfeiffer Phoenix 33

the public eye, and taken off only when she enters

her home. Every Friday, alongside other Kabul citi-

zens, they were made to go to the stadium to watch

the mutilation or killing of arrested Afghanis. The Tali-

ban targeted educated people, throwing the oneswho did not escape the country into jail.

Benazir escaped the country. She fled to Pesha-

war, a large city in Pakistan near the border of Af-

ghanistan, along with thousands of other Afghanis

who held the title refugees. Her life was much dif-

ferent. (Ellis 5)

Now, I am jobless, Benazir explains. I have no

way to survive economically. I live in Peshawar with

lots of difficulties. Having an education and not being

able to use it is l ike having money and not being able

to buy food (Ellis 6).

This is a very true story, but it is not the only one tell-

ing of botched education.

This next story is about an American college stu-

dent who will go unnamed by choice. At about

seven on a Thursday night, she takes a shower and

lets her friends fix her hair while she works on her

makeup. They leave the dormitory and cl imb into the

car, giggling the whole way. They arrive at their desti-

nation, a house blaring dance music and loud

drunken yelling. She dances into the night, growing

more and more comfortable with each alcoholic

drink she consumes. Here is where the story goes into

intermission, not for storytellings sake, but because

our main character wakes up the next afternoon withno recollection of the previous night. She does not

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Pfeiffer Phoenix 32

Education,

for Granted

This is the story of a woman named Benazir.

She used to be a student, and eventually a

teacher, alongside her best friend at ZargonaHigh School in Kabul, Afghanistanused to be.Benazir studied English in high school, enjoying

poetry, nature, and photography. She got her

masters degree in education at QueenslandUniversity in Brisbane, Australia. During her col-

lege career, she was involved in the Business

and Professional Womens Association, the So-roptimist Club, the YWCA, and the United Na-

tions Association. After teaching for while andwinning best teacher of the year three times,

she was appointed the principal of the Afghan

Womens Society Vocational High School, awomens school which at one time had threethousand students enrolled. Soon after taking

the job, Benazir began to travel abroad to con-

ferences and seminars, going to countries such

as Mongolia, Indonesia, Moscow, Manila, and

Bangkok. (Ellis 4)

The Taliban came.

In Afghanistans attempt to fight off the re-bellion, bombings went off without warning,

randomly killing whatever citizen had the misfor-

tune of being in the wrong place at the wrong

time. Gradually, the Taliban took over the city.

The women were forced to wear burqas, which

are dark garments designed to hide the entire

body, must be worn whenever a woman enters

Pfeiffer Phoenix 19

The O Train

- Jordy Carson

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Pfeiffer Phoenix 20

Everywhere

One night I came home and my house was

burned to the ground. My father stood in the front

yard, facing the smoldering remains.

What happened? I asked.

He was wearing jeans and his plaid shirt and noth-

ing else: he was barefooted, his feet blackened by

the soot.

Your mother was everywhere, he said. I smelled

her everywhere.

They got married when I was five. I was the flower-

girl to my own parents wedding. I was born whenthey were both eighteen, and my father saw it

through until I was two, and he left, unsure of

whether he was with my mother because he loved

her or because it was for the sake of their baby. I

never understood why it couldnt have been both.

He wandered for a year, and returned one night

in the middle of a rainstorm, a broken man. My

mother opened the screen door, me on her hip, and

we both looked down at him.

I love you, he said, and my mother let him in. It

was my first memorymy father, on his knees, tears in

his eyes, his hands resting on my mothers feet, look-

ing up and saying those words. I guess a year is long

enough for someone to figure out theyve made a

mistake.

He became the strongest man. He loved my

mother with everything he possessed, and he loved

Pfeiffer Phoenix 31

TS 3

- Tabitha Shue

Phoenix Staff Member

8/3/2019 Fall 2011 Final

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Pfeiffer Phoenix 30

I now wear them to show and silently voice my sup-

port,

and Ive built up walls around me that would resem-

ble a fort.

I wonder why I didnt see them so much before?

They are just reminders that make me want to ball

up on the floor.

- Hailey Starnes

Pfeiffer Phoenix 21

There was nothing more powerful on this earth that

was stronger than my fathers love.

I dont know what cracked inside of her, what

crumbled, what creature grabbed her by the coreand made her walk away. She left us in the same

way he had, except she was sure, and she wasnt

coming back.

My father ceased to live. As if she filled every

space within him, once she left, he was a shell. Her

things were still a part of every room in our house. It

was as if she vanished, disappeared, evaporated.

I looked up at my father, and saw that his facehad fallen apart as he had begun to weep fiercely.

Dad? I asked.

I can still smell her, he sobbed.

It wasnt until then that I noticed my mothers

car sitting in the driveway, her belongings half-filling

the gaping trunk.

- Kaitlyn Mullis

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Pfeiffer Phoenix 22

New Focus

- Matthew Effinger

Pfeiffer Phoenix 29

Pink Ribbons

I always see them now, everywhere,

at basketball games in the cheerleaders hair.

I see them on shirts, sweaters, and hats.They are so abundant, I am just realizing that.

On wine bottles at grocery stores and magnets on

cars,

on blankets, bracelets cups, and even on scarves.

I wonder why I didnt see them so much before?

They are just reminders that make me want to ball up

on the floor.

Awareness. Support. Love. Hope.

People say thats what they stand for, but I didnt get

a vote.

Slogans like save the ta-tas make their use seem

like a joke,

sometimes when I see them, I tear up and start to

choke.

For me they represent the future unknown,

while also meaning a stronger family, and never left

alone.

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Pfeiffer Phoenix 28

Occupy

- Kirsten Bragg

Pfeiffer Phoenix 23

Something Beautiful

They say your body describes who you are,

But is it your body that defines beauty?

Our bodies are simply the judged containers

While something beautiful lies inside.

Unfortunately the decisions you make

Determine whether it is dead or alive.

Looking at the superficial,

There is nothing unique.

But as you search for beauty,

You will see what there is to seek.

As Mother Nature starts off under the ground,

She produces the essentials of life.

As your body is only what the eye can see,

The most beautiful part is out of sight.

The true beauty comes from within,

You just have to want to find it

To see what has always been.

- Morgan Barnes

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Pfeiffer Phoenix 24

Peony

- Jingzhuo Li

Pfeiffer Phoenix 27

The hour cannot slow the second hand.

Always first, it passes it to pass again.

Both hands are each others to hold,

But they touch for a moment, then let go.

Again theyll touch sometime they know,

What time they tell together, I dismiss.

From missing you, it feels amiss,

I am the hour, I am old.

The Hour

- Stephen Schroeder

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Pfeiffer Phoenix 26

Feed

- Brittany Loder

Phoenix Staff Member

Pfeiffer Phoenix 25

Monster

It's creeping closer,

this monstrous fear.

It slinks and it slithers,drawing ever-near.

I don't want this;

I try and flee

but no matter how far I run

it always comes to me.

It wraps around my mind

whispering treacherous lies

and some frightening truths

(at least, I surmise).

Though try as I might,

it's always about

encircling my heart;

this monster called doubt.

- Brittany Loder

Phoenix Staff Member