Windward Review Vol. 20 (2022): Beginnings and Endings
"Beginnings and Endings" (2022) challenged South Texas writers and beyond to narrate structures of beginnings and ends. What results is a collection of poetry, prose, hybrid writing, and photography that haunts, embraces, and consoles all the same. Similar to past WR volumes, this collection defies easy elaboration - it contains diverse tones, languages, colors, and creative spaces. Creative pieces within the text builds upon others, allowing polyvocal narratives to interlock and defy the logic of 'beginning-middle-end'. By the end of this collection, you will neither sense nor crave the finality that a typical text brings. Instead, you will be inspired to learn and create beyond a narrative linear structure. Your reading and support is sincerely appreciated.
"Beginnings and Endings" (2022) challenged South Texas writers and beyond to narrate structures of beginnings and ends. What results is a collection of poetry, prose, hybrid writing, and photography that haunts, embraces, and consoles all the same. Similar to past WR volumes, this collection defies easy elaboration - it contains diverse tones, languages, colors, and creative spaces. Creative pieces within the text builds upon others, allowing polyvocal narratives to interlock and defy the logic of 'beginning-middle-end'. By the end of this collection, you will neither sense nor crave the finality that a typical text brings. Instead, you will be inspired to learn and create beyond a narrative linear structure. Your reading and support is sincerely appreciated.
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Mose Graves<br />
When I Die Just Let Me Go To Texas<br />
for Janice<br />
Forty years romancing Herefords <strong>and</strong> Gerts<br />
around snakeroot <strong>and</strong> sneezeweed all over<br />
the Rio Gr<strong>and</strong>e—br<strong>and</strong>ing the calves,<br />
gelding the bulls, doling out salt licks <strong>and</strong><br />
hay bales in their season he must’ve looked<br />
to them like God, if God rode a buckskin<br />
<strong>and</strong> kept a plug of Red Man in His cheek.<br />
The first time his lasso missed its mark<br />
he chalked it up to too much Jack the night before,<br />
but then the numbness commenced to spread<br />
like resin oozing down a pine.<br />
“MS,” they said, <strong>and</strong> by <strong>and</strong> by<br />
even his pony knew better than<br />
to cut too quick at his comm<strong>and</strong>.<br />
Unhorsed, he took up saddlery,<br />
h<strong>and</strong>crafting mounts for others to ride.<br />
Slow work at best: carving the tree,<br />
stitching the gullet, shaping <strong>and</strong><br />
trimming <strong>and</strong> tooling the cantle,<br />
layer upon layer of leather to holster<br />
the loss of his old rawhide nerves.<br />
“When the Lord closes the door,<br />
He opens a window,”<br />
the old saw goes,<br />
<strong>and</strong> soon<br />
savvy wranglers from<br />
Kingsville to Sheridan<br />
tipped their brims to his skill.<br />
His chart reads “90 yrs, irrit., conf.” when you<br />
answer the call. The only chaplain on the ward,<br />
the past two hours found you shrouding a body<br />
in linen <strong>and</strong> psalms as per the ancient rite.<br />
Inured to the hospital’s icy light, tonight<br />
the flatscreen’s lacquered l<strong>and</strong>scapes <strong>and</strong><br />
cool, curated soundtrack sets your teeth on edge.<br />
“What kind of music do you like?”<br />
you ask the old man as the TV blinks to black.<br />
“Country <strong>and</strong> western,” he smiles.<br />
“Both kinds,” so you sing him his favorite<br />
cowboy song. He closes his eyes,<br />
<strong>and</strong> in the morning you are not surprised to learn<br />
he never felt the need to open them again.<br />
<strong>Beginnings</strong> X <strong>Endings</strong><br />
138
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