would be CREATION

Editor’s Note No English teacher worth her salt would assign Huckleberry Finn without unpacking and counterbalancing the problems of a white writer representing 19th century black American life. So why do so many of us grant a free pass to the cheap symbolism of Of Mice and Men? Despite texts like Kingsley and Levtiz’s Count Us In or Mukhopadhyah’s The Mind Tree, writing not about but by people with developmental disabilities rarely lands on our coffee and bedside tables. As this collection shows, that’s a shame, for we all lose out when such rich, sometimes idiosyncratic voices are disregarded. Tremendous thanks to Colonial Church for donating space and Opportunity Partners —especially direct support staff — for arranging participants. From the steely resolve of Lyn Johnson’s “Freedom” to the sweeping charm of Dar Cieminski’s “Boy Meets Girl,” these pieces carve out space waiting to be filled with writers and readers. In the words of Brad Kellar, “People want to know what’s going on.”

Bryan Boyce, Cow Tipping Press June 2015

Cover art by Anna Halverson, Interact Center.

1

SURVIVAL

by Brad Kellar

I think hunger is important, a hunger for life.

And that no one can tell you how to live your life.

You should be able to live it the way you want to.

Appetite would be something to eat. Appetite

would be, you know, after you've eaten a lot of

food, that you wouldn't want to go and eat

something else. That your appetite is good enough.

Appetite for something to drink, like milk or juice

or water. I think hunger is the wilderness. The

animals. Life. Hunger for something exciting to

happen. Hunger for something – how can I put it?

Hunger for being alive. Hunger for being brave.

Hunger for exploring. Hunger for nature. Hunger

for the sounds. Hunger for creation. Hunger for

beauty. Hunger for not knowing what's coming.

Hunger for creating something. Hunger for being

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who you are. Hunger would be sound, different

kinds of sounds. Hunger would be the stars, the

moon, the sun. Hunger would be creation.

3

FREEDOM

by Lyn Johnson

I’m 63 years old. I’ll be 64 next year. I’m a

good worker at Valley Natural Foods. And I’m still

single. I have a boyfriend and he’s slow getting me

an engagement ring. He always says that, “Let’s get

married, let’s get married.” And I say, “When?” I’ll

be 90 years old by the time I get married! I’m still

looking for an apartment. I gotta get out of that

group home – it’s getting worse ever. I lost my

mom, my dad, and my brother. My dad had been

drinking and got himself drunk. That’s why I’m

trying to tell people stop drinking and stop

smoking. And I don’t have contact with the rest of

my family. That’s myself.

I tell people, smoking causes cancer. I wish

people would quit drinking and driving and get

themselves in trouble. Because my dad got drunk

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at the bar after work and he hit the telephone pole.

I got after him. And my mom started getting after

him. I said, “Mom, you don’t know what he’s

doing.” And he hit the telephone pole.

Every once a weekend I go see my mom and

dad’s grave. I’m going to see them again, because

I’m going to be buried there if something happens

to me. I want to see my brother’s graveyard too,

next time. Because I do miss my mom, my dad, and

my brother. I remember, I don’t have no

grandparents any more. I just got nieces and

nephews, but I don’t hear from them. Hopefully,

through this day I’m going to keep on working till

I’m retired. I’ve got so many jobs – I retired so

many jobs. Didn’t work out. I pray the God to help

me out. I go to church every Sunday. That’s about

it.

5

THINKING ABOUT THE WAR DEAD

by Robert Bergerson

Memorial Day is about the war dead.

World War II. All the veterans that passed away.

Because I had a dad who was in World War II.

I like vacations. I'm excited about going to

New York, flying. I like travel. I like to take

adventures.

6

from THE RARE TALE OF THE LIFE OF THE ALL-POWERFUL WIZARD

by Ethan Bussiere

“Jesse, darling. Don’t forget to clean the pig

pen,” my mother called after me as I left the house

for the barn.

“Yes mother, I won’t forget,” I said. I was 13

going on 14. I was kind of tall for my age, strong

and fit with choppy jet black hair and piercing

blue eyes and I thought I knew everything.

I walked to the shed and started cleaning. The

sun was blazing hot that day and I was sweating

buckets. I announced to no one, “Oooo! It’s hot.”

Out of nowhere a crow flew down, landed on

the fence, and repeated what I said. Hot! Hot! Hot!

Hot! Then another sat down and in unison said

Hot! Hot! Hot! Hot! This was freaking me out

because I had never seen it before. More and more

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crows sat down and repeated the same word over

and over again. Soon there were hundreds in the

trees and in and on the barn. Soon I was yelling,

“Stop, stop it!” but the scary deafening sound just

intensified.

So I yelled, “Mom, help!” She came running

outside fast. She burst into the barn, took one look

at the birds and raised her hands and said, “Silence

these birds, make their voices unheard.”

The crowing stopped but their beaks kept

moving. Then they flew right at me. My mother

yelled, “Turn these birds to ashes before another

moment passes!” The birds glowed red for a

minute and turned to dust.

My mother looked at me and said, “Come with

me.” We walked into the house in silence and up

the stairs to my parents’ room. If I was sweating

8

before, I was soaked now. I could not stand it

anymore and asked, “What the hell was that?”

“The crows of death,” my mother said, not

looking back. She was rummaging through the old

family chest. “They come by when death is near.”

“Wh-wa-what does that mean?! I’m going to

die?” I asked.

“Not necessarily you. It could be one of us or

both. All I know is that someone very powerful has

put a dark curse on us. Your father and I are well-

known powerful magic users. It could be someone

wanting us dead or it could be a notion to get us

out of the way to get to you. All I know is that we

must take precautions to keep us all safe. You most

of all. Ahh, here it is.” She pulled out a thick book

that said The Book of Magic for Witches.

“Someone really powerful is messing with

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darkness,” she said while flipping through the

pages of the book.

“Here it is. The three signs of death. The first

one is the lightest, then they get darker and darker.

The spells are up to the caster but they must follow

in that order. Somebody wants us dead so we must

do all we can to make sure we are protected from

death,” my mother said.

10

WORK LIFE

by Dar Cieminski

I do assembly line work

Gander Mt and Target bags and Shutterfly

wedding photo books

because of my big sister

computers and cooking

reading and writing – arithmetic

charming content quite creative

and witchy / I do / four / class / rm

skills – in and out of the building

I remember the secret garden

I like sunsets and sunrise in the morning and the

afternoon

11

BECKY

by Robert Bergerson

My girlfriend, Becky. She's nice and she's a great

dancer.

A special person.

I like talking to her on the phone.

She likes the color blue.

She's got a cat named Bella, a kitty cat.

She's chubby and she's 55.

And she's diabetic.

And she likes to go to church.

Fantastic.

We met at work

and we just started talking together.

She likes pizza.

We like to watch movies.

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She's someone to talk to, to hang out with so I'm

not alone.

She's a nice person.

I've learned you gotta try and make it better and

you gotta ask questions, you gotta get together.

13

WHAT I BELIEVE

by Ethan Bussiere

I necessarily wouldn’t like to be

remembered, but would like to be acknowledged

for my accomplishments and to be known as a

short story writer. I’d rather be noticed for my

current and future accomplishments. I want

people to remember how I changed and not how I

used to be. I want people to notice my good deeds

and not my bad ones. Remember the good, forget

the bad. Feel my love, remember my pain, forget

the crazy, remember the sane.

14

WHAT I PRAY FOR

by Robert Bergerson

That we have world peace. That the world will

stop fighting. That there'll be no more war. Life

everlasting.

I fold my hands and pray every night before I

go to bed. Till everything's going to be okay. I say

Jesus, pray that the world will someday be peace.

No more wars. Someday. Unfortunately, the

world's not that way though. I mean the real

world.

All this terrorism business too. I mean 9/11, I

think a lot of times about 9/11 still. Because my

mom and dad were alive when the towers fell.

Yeah. It happened when I was at work too. I came

home and found that the twins had fallen down.

And oh my God, I'm shocked.

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I can't wait to go there again the next year. I

want to see it again. Because it means something to

me. It means that it fell, that those guys made it fall

or something. They shouldn't have done that. They

changed the world.

16

THE UNKNOWN

by Brad Kellar

I think sometimes I feel like we're being

watched. And why we're being watched, I don't

know. Maybe they're trying to tell us something.

Either they're peaceful or they're hostile. Life forms

can be just about anything. I think life forms are

kind of interesting. They're different. Nobody really

knows where they come from, they just – they're

there. It makes you wonder if there really is life on

another planet. And if there is, what are they?

Scientists have been trying to figure that out for a

long time. They've always sent an away team to

learn about life forms and what, but we really

don’t know if there is any life forms out there.

People have seen ships from other countries and

other cities. So there must be life forms out there.

Or else maybe it's a cover up. Maybe it's not even

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true. Maybe it's something that was made up.

They've always wanted to discover about other life

forms and if they're not peaceful, then we could be

in serious trouble.

I think we'd all have to find ways to work

together to protect our planet. And if we don't

protect our planet, then our planet will be

destroyed and life – there won’t be any life left.

Because they're always sending buoys out there to

find out if there is life on other planets. And there's

planets that we don't even know about. That we've

never heard about. That we've never seen. So how

do we really know that there is life? You know, the

UFO has been covered up for a long time and

people are always wondering: well, is that a real

ship or was it made? Did we come up with these

ships, or are they from another planet? Keeping

information from the public is not good, because

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people want to know what's going on. And it they

don’t know what's going on, there isn't really a

whole lot they can do.

I have yet to see a life form. Maybe someday,

maybe I won't. It would be interesting to know if

there is something out there that's floating around

or if it's in a ship. And if it comes to visit us, will it

be a peaceful life form or will it be a hostile life

form? Because the life form will think we're

primitive, thinking that we’re strange and unusual

and not too sure of us. Just got to keep watching

the sky, because you never know what's going to

be coming. Or maybe it won't come. Maybe it'll

just not show up. I think the public needs to know

what's really going on out there. And they have to

come up with ways to protect our planet.

19

BOY MEETS GIRL

by Dar Cieminski

The party they were at was a wedding party.

They kind of laughed at each other’s jokes and got

acquainted. They were just having fun with each

other.

She was wearing a sparkly dress and he was

wearing a tux. She sang and danced, and they

stayed up really late. He then went on a date with

her and he forgot that he was afraid of women and

his desire to get married. They went out to dinner

and rented a movie. They wrote essays about each

other, they taught each other friendship and love.

They learned how to be good people. Since he

was so creative, the boy made her a promise, to

love her. She felt excited! She was happy and he

was dazzled by her beauty. He felt he would love

her always as they got to know each other.

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They got married. They gave each other

wedding vows, rings, the moon and stars. The

marriage made the boy not afraid anymore. He

created the promise and the vows and they loved

each other for eternity.

CONTRIBUTORS Robert Bergerson likes sports. He likes spending time with people. He loves making money. Just having fun. He also likes to talk about world events, like every day what goes on in the world. Because he watches the news a lot. Because he thinks about the Middle East.

Ethan Bussiere is interested in writing. He's more of a fiction/fantasy writer than a nonfiction writer. He likes hearing peoples' views on his stories. It helps him to improve.

Dar Cieminski likes writing. She likes everything. She thinks it's mysterious and unusual. She hopes she does a good job selling this.

Lyn Johnson is artness.

If you like writing and you like to be creative in the way you write, then Brad Kellar would go for it. You just need to come up with your own ideas so you know what they are and what they're about and see if it makes any sense or not. You'll find that some writers sometimes have a hard time trying to come up with something that will work and sometimes they have to stop and kind of regroup and think about what they're writing. He thinks writing can be interesting if you haven't written before – you know, it's something to learn. Don't quit writing. Keep going. You'll find that the more you write, the more you like it.

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