The Maze

I thought I knew the way around the maze
thought your light was bright enough
that your hand was firm
that I’d find my way to the end with you.

Now I can’t see anything
the way I could
And my hands are empty
Fumbling mutely
through shadows
through rudimentary trial and error
going this way and that way
hitting the walls
stumbling over roots
I find my way to something
only now I’m more lost than ever.

I know you’re already at the end
maybe you’ve seen I’m not there
Maybe you’ve sung your celebratory songs
too loud to even notice.

-Blair E. Burke, class of 2008

Photography from Jessica Grantham

Vertical Limits

-Jessica Grantham, class of 2010

Traitor

Traitor!
I think it’s done,
No more pain, or
Sense of longing.

But, no it couldn’t
Be that simple,
Couldn’t end nicely,
Or tucked away in
My memories.

No, this time,
It feels like it
Has been wretched
From my chest
That organ of muscle

The one that is
Supposed to keep
Me alive, not leave
Me dying of a broken
Heart

The sad thing
In this Shakespearean tragedy
Is that the trigger wasn’t
A face, letter, or token

No, it was a combination
Of color, make and model,
An arrangement of numbers
And letters on a piece of metal

One fleeting glance
Confirmed it, my
Treacherous heart
Was no longer in my
Possession, gone again with
Him who broke it
Into too many pieces

But, maybe the true
Traitor is me
I denied my heart
From indulging in
The greatest emotion

From loving the one
Who made me soar,
The one who is
My other half.

-Jessica MacIntosh, class of 2011

Hiatus — but we’re back!

The Salt Shaker has effectively been offline for the past 6 months. We apologize for this hiatus. We were in the process of transitioning to new people to take over the leadership of this eZine. Please bear with us as we work to bring in new people and new submissions. Feel free to send all submissions to salt.ezine@gmail.com. Let your friends know!

Photography from Arnée Martin

-Arnée Martin, class of 2011

Pacolet

It’s all over
– the red stilettos, roadtrips, bubble bath nights alone –
If she gives her life to him and his laundry and that cute little house
I’m sure they’ll soon have nestled at the edge of Pacolet,
Where she could yell from her kitchen window
And all her living relatives would hear.
She’ll devote her eyeliner years
To Tupperware and waiting up for her husband
Whose tires crunch the gravel later and later and later each evening,
While the warmth seeps from his steak and their bed
As the gallon of milk in the fridge slowly curdles.
Yet she’ll have pleasant cheeks and sunny hair.
The neighbors will like the way she trims the hedges
And she’ll put just enough sugar in the sweet tea.
But her heart will be small within her.
He’ll buy her towels for her birthday,
And the vacuum will break before company arrives.
There will be too many small shoes lurking under the couch.
She will realize
When the wedding dress hangs limp in her closet,
As Skittles melt into the dashboard of the van,
That dreams are tiny robin’s eggs
Which, held too tightly, burst.

-Jessica Miller, class of 2009

The First Step

Stumbling forward,
One foot falls in front of the other,
Despite the fear, despite the danger
Despite the inevitability of more,
Balance in gained.

Footsteps firmed, confidence swells with
Ever-larger steps building on top of narrower paths,
Each step building upon the other
With reason serving as the balancing force.

Avoiding the gaps too wide to cross,
While trudging forward on rocky paths,
Courage grows more complete.

It all began with one first step,
One single stumbling step.

-Chris Bailey, class of 2010

Anaxagoras

Nothing comes to be,
Yet things exist in their being.

How can something be
Without coming to be?

Separated,
Wheels, frames, sheetmetal, and glass
Remain
Wheels, frames, sheetmetal, and glass.

Together,
Glass, sheetmetal, frames, and wheels
Become
Automobiles.

Things do not
Become from nothing.

Mixture and separation
Is
Creation and destruction.

-Steve Robison, class of 2009

Unattached

This grotto, this

enclosed chamber, shivers into sore not

as I do in here

sharing fire with slideshows

of bent silhouettes, companioned

shadows that don’t adjust

in their cuffs screwed

metal and thick rock

as I do right here next

to anxious yawns. We’re tired

of wanting out

knowing of out, just knowing

of in and vibration

from above and those

dazzling voices, dripping

with something called Sun

that awaits my becoming

out there.

-Rebekah Johnson, class of 2010

Untitled

You have the chance, it’s staring you down

Are you scared? Are you drifting back to sleep?

Didn’t anyone tell you?

Now is the time.

time to open your eyes

The seatbelt light just went off.

No, no

Don’t go to sleep

It’s always within our grasp.

It’s true that when you’re most attentive, you’re slowly

drifting off.

Falling into a trance, the path to unconscious indifference

Fight the urge to

fall.

The logos is waiting.

Objective and ultimate,

guiding the cosmos.

Souls designed to understand,

The logos is the link.

The world in flux, seeming ever-changing

Bodies shifting, sorting, ordering,

but constantly changing.

-Katie Brown, class of 2010

As if from a memory of a place that never was by Becky Elam

-Becky Elam, class of 2011

Photography from Arnée Martin

-Arnée Martin, class of 2011

Photography from Covington Avent

Rain Rain Go Away

The Road to the Hogar

The Best Secret I Never Kept

-Covington Avent, class of 2011

Photography from Jessica Grantham

Tinted Rose

Vertical Rainbow

Valentine

-Jessica Grantham, class of 2010

Midnight Train

I still remember that day,
The day my heart rode away on that midnight train,
I saw it board that train and speed away,
But I saw it leave with a smile on my face,
A tinge of happiness from where it once was.

But now I believe my heart is lost,
Sometimes I think it’s still so close
That I feel it beating,
But in a moment it disappears,
Can I live without it?

Don’t say that nobody cares about that day,
Because every night I hear a train,
The sound fades as it speeds away,
I remember with tears on my face,
A churn of sadness from where it once was.

-Caroline Lazaro, Class of 2011