Essay from Ayokunle Adeleye

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YOUTHS, Save NIGERIA.

I have since heard many a youth lament about how our grandfathers
continue to ruin the country in the name of ruling it, about how the
rulers of yesteryears are yet the leaders of tomorrow, about how these
grandfathers themselves were youths when they set out but now detest
our youth and our entitlement, about how the affairs of the youth are
left for our gramps (and grannies) to ru(i)n.

I had therefore asserted that anyone older than the republic Nigeria
has no business whatsoever ruling in whatever capacity, that we, the
youth of this country, have had enough of them, that they have failed
to solve even issues that their wantonness created lest we talk of the
challenges of our time, that they have over-stayed their (stolen)
welcome being antiquated and obsolete in all their ways.

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Poetry from John Grey

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INTO THE ROCKIES

 

Due west, as we drive,

mountains, colored mostly from the red spectrum,

rise up in a line.

I feel a little like the captain

of a charging army.

The enemy won’t shoot

until they see the whites of my eyes.

 

The land’s been so flat until now

but, ahead of us,

the world no longer adheres to that lie.

My wife turns down the radio.

It’s like she wants to be able to hear

what she’s seeing.

Even in the back seat, boredom gives way to awe.

 

“Those are the Rockies,” I proclaim.

So I’m the head of an expedition now.

Once again, my team fail to recognize their leader’s genius.

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Mind Your Own Business: Ayokunle Adeleye’s entrepreneurship column

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The POTENTIAL III: Minding Your Own Business.
I have since realised that youth can be turned to advantage, that
things are easier when one is young (contrary to popular opinion and
everyday observation); that when one is young, the ‘whole world’
typically rallies around to help, advice is easier to get and
experience, to garner, and the ancient argumentum ad misericordiam
holds sway. Ironically, that is when one is interested in camaraderie,
looking-good, feeling-fly, wasteful spending; rather than in
investments, digging-deep, taking-root, securing assets (land
other/more than cars).

I had therefore urged that we break forth, start our own businesses,
but realise limits, and stay safe. But I have also seen how that is
not the reason we are where we are (poor, jobless and thronging
ourselves to death; Boko Haram joblessly working on our National
security, sovereignty, and sanity; and the Government dutifully
procrastinating, denying, and politicking), how we indeed break forth
and set limits (that we do not court save conquer), how we are easily
quietened, silenced, satiated; for we quickly lose focus, loose grip
and, in not minding our business, place it in loos.

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Poetry from Jon Wesick

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Mars Needs Actresses
There again on an old movie
on late-night TV, those familiar blue eyes
and spattering of freckles across her nose!
Karen Allen, whatever happened to her?
And where did Ellen Burstyn go?
Did Roseanna Arquette vanish from her Beverly Hills home
leaving “Croatan” carved on a tree trunk?
After starring in all those DH Lawrence adaptations
did Glenda Jackson jump in a time machine
and travel to Mexico with Ambrose Bierce
or simply join Neal Cassady for a walk in the desert?
I miss Debra Winger’s funny nose and crooked eyes
as well as Margot Kidder, Molly Ringwald,
Penelope Anne Miller, and Adrienne Barbeau.
Maybe they’re cruising the Bermuda Triangle
on the Mary Celeste or sunning on a tropical beach
with Jimmy Hoffa. Maybe they took part
in a secret, government project
at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard or hijacked a plane
and parachuted over Washington state with the ransom.

Poetry from Stephen Prime

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Response Ability

 

I would do anything

To trade places with that image

That I had in my head that I can’t write down

 

What I was told

What I heard

Left me speechless

And at the time words were essential

They should have been words of joy

Encouragement

Celebration

Rejuvenation. Congratulation

Friday the 13th

We were still shouting at each other when I opened the champagne

 

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Poetry from Christa Ward

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I’ll never tell

There is mass in my throat

I swallow

Don’t Choke.

The mass is still there

I’m still suffocating.

I can still breath?

My lungs still work. Surprising me.

What is this knot in my throat?

I know…

It’s the tangle of words I cannot bring myself to say

Choking me.

They clog my tears too

So I do not cry.

A damn.

Concrete

Poured down my throat until I can not speak at all.

Passing me in the street you would never know

I’ll never tell

Academic essay from Moon McCroskey

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Spin the Globe

Labeled map of the world

Spin the World

Why this?

I picked the International Conversation hour because of my desire to travel. One of my favorite things to do as a child was sit in front of the globe we own, close my eyes, spin it, and drag my finger across the smooth surface until it slowed to a stop. I would then open my eyes and wherever my finger landed that’s where I told myself I would go.

Occasionally I had to cheat because, inevitably, my finger would land in the middle of the ocean. That intrigue and that wonder is something that I carried, and still carry, to this day. I want to know about anything that’s not the United States but, like most people, I don’t actively seek out more knowledge on the matter. To be perfectly honest, I am rather naïve when it comes to other cultures and countries.

Going into this I was a little nervous due to the positions I held. I am a white female who’s never been outside the South, let alone the United States. I do not speak any other languages, except for basic Spanish, and I haven’t been on a study abroad trip. The only thing that really put me “in with the crowd” was the fact that I am a Georgia Southern student, just like them.

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