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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move. The display of it was wanting but<br />
easily fixed with the purchase of a glass,<br />
bell-shaped dome on a wooden platform.<br />
The dedicated tongs also had received a<br />
st<strong>and</strong> of their own in the same stroke.<br />
Many months later <strong>and</strong> on her<br />
many idle days, Antimony contemplated<br />
the monkey paw. It became an exercise in<br />
pondering her unsatisfactory life. Of all<br />
the things she needed, of all the things<br />
she wanted, <strong>and</strong> of all the things she had<br />
to change. There were only five fingers<br />
<strong>and</strong> she supposed that this was why<br />
wishes often reached for broad effects—<br />
to make the most of them. Perhaps the<br />
consequences that followed were less the<br />
result of malice <strong>and</strong> more attributed to a<br />
lack of power to cleanly fulfill a wish. It<br />
was clearly not comparable to something<br />
like Djinni who often possessed the<br />
power <strong>and</strong> scope but could intentionally<br />
twist wishes towards their own desires.<br />
If it were the genuine article,<br />
Antimony figured it would have done<br />
something by now. It’s how the stories<br />
went anyhow. Her life circumstances<br />
were no worse than before, no convoluted<br />
circumstances compelled her to wish<br />
them different, <strong>and</strong> she certainly wasn’t<br />
squ<strong>and</strong>ering anything on easily fixable<br />
inconveniences when the backlash could<br />
be so disproportionately dire.<br />
The malcontent toward life <strong>and</strong><br />
its daily grind returned to the forefront<br />
of her mind. No matter how many new<br />
skills attempted, vision boards made,<br />
visualizations mediated, gratitude<br />
journals filled, social circles joined, or<br />
new experiences rendered, she felt that<br />
nothing moved forward. Not even the<br />
move to an entirely new location with a<br />
new job afforded her any significant or<br />
fulfilling change. It merely resumed as<br />
another environment with all the old<br />
trappings. Perhaps all her efforts were<br />
too halfhearted or the discipline of her<br />
endeavors too wanting, Antimony didn’t<br />
possess much of a drive to keep pace with<br />
modern life, <strong>and</strong> that she acknowledged<br />
of herself.<br />
As ridiculous as it was, she began to<br />
seriously consider the monkey paw more<br />
<strong>and</strong> more as her weariness festered over<br />
the months. Antimony felt exhausted in<br />
her efforts at self-improvement <strong>and</strong> her<br />
bank account was all the weakened for<br />
them.<br />
Wealth. That she could certainly<br />
use. Money could not outright buy<br />
happiness, but it was the great facilitator<br />
<strong>and</strong> the tremendous remover of<br />
limitations <strong>and</strong> obstacles. Antimony had<br />
no need for the excess of the super rich<br />
to sit upon <strong>and</strong> growth for the sole sake<br />
of growth. It would be worth enough<br />
to simply liberate herself from the<br />
dependence on the daily grind to provide.<br />
Sufficient wealth would give her more<br />
freedom to invest in her hobbies <strong>and</strong><br />
wants. Greater than that, it would enable<br />
her to throw money at all the artists,<br />
artisans, self-starters, independents,<br />
<strong>and</strong> general creatives she admired <strong>and</strong><br />
appreciated without any compromise to<br />
her own circumstances. After all, they<br />
had the courageous passion to pursue<br />
their own avenues <strong>and</strong> deserved to have<br />
their financial concerns alleviated in full<br />
favor of bringing more to the world as<br />
well as flourishing as individuals. Yes,<br />
wealth would certainly set her free.<br />
She stood over the monkey paw but<br />
did not remove it from its glass display<br />
until she fully <strong>and</strong> carefully considered<br />
her wish. The best approach was not<br />
to reach too far <strong>and</strong> also to localize the<br />
imagined consequences to herself. It was<br />
through a restrained selfishness that she<br />
could help herself before helping others.<br />
With an odd gravitas, she removed the<br />
monkey paw, grasped it with bare h<strong>and</strong>s,<br />
<strong>and</strong> wished in all its stipulations. None<br />
of its fingers so much as twitched, <strong>and</strong><br />
Antimony hastily set it back down before<br />
she had any errant thoughts. In the dead<br />
quiet of her home, she felt nothing but<br />
29 <strong>Windward</strong> <strong>Review</strong> <strong>Vol</strong>ume <strong>20</strong>