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Morris, Wilda

The Prairie Light Review 
Volume 42 Number 1 Article 10 
Fall 12-1-2019 
Nomad: My Autobiography 
Wilda Morris 
College of DuPage 
Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr 
Recommended Citation 
Morris, Wilda (2019) "Nomad: My Autobiography," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 42 : No. 1 , Article 10. 
Available at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol42/iss1/10 
This Selection is brought to you for free and open access by the College Publications at DigitalCommons@COD. It 
has been accepted for inclusion in The Prairie Light Review by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@COD. For 
more information, please contact orenick@cod.edu. 
Nomad: My Autobiography
I followed the whistle
down the railroad tracks
and out of  town.
Every place I live
is a station with a ticket window,
an airport where I pick up
a boarding pass.
Come with me if  you will
or I’ll travel alone.
Wilda Morris
Fushimi Inari in Daylight. Tyler Salas, Photography
7
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Morris: Nomad: My Autobiography
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English

Nomad: My Autobiography

Fudacz, Allison

The Prairie Light Review 
Volume 42 Number 1 Article 24 
Fall 12-1-2019 
Get Down 
Allison Fudacz 
College of DuPage 
Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr 
Recommended Citation 
Fudacz, Allison (2019) "Get Down," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 42 : No. 1 , Article 24. 
Available at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol42/iss1/24 
This Artwork is brought to you for free and open access by the College Publications at DigitalCommons@COD. It 
has been accepted for inclusion in The Prairie Light Review by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@COD. For 
more information, please contact orenick@cod.edu. 
1Fudacz: Get Down
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Get Down

Scher, Rebekah

The Prairie Light Review 
Volume 42 Number 1 Article 32 
Fall 12-1-2019 
How I Spent My Saturday Mornings That Summer 
Rebekah Scher 
College of DuPage 
Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr 
Recommended Citation 
Scher, Rebekah (2019) "How I Spent My Saturday Mornings That Summer," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 
42 : No. 1 , Article 32. 
Available at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol42/iss1/32 
This Selection is brought to you for free and open access by the College Publications at DigitalCommons@COD. It 
has been accepted for inclusion in The Prairie Light Review by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@COD. For 
more information, please contact orenick@cod.edu. 
How I Spent My Saturday Mornings That Summer 
The lobby is damp and dark, silent
but for a clown whose laughter taunts me
from the pinball machine.
He knows I am a lonely little girl
and thinks it’s funny.
I walk the halls, scan stained carpet,
check under ripped, velvet seats
for fallen pennies or crumpled dollars
lodged in cup holders,
gas money for the week.
My mother mops butter off concrete,
chips away gum on arm rests,
remnants of  someone else’s Friday night.
I sit alone in an empty theatre
looking at a blank white screen
feeling it is my fate to walk into rooms
after life has already left.
Rebekah Scher
Accurate. Alison Fudacz, Photography
28
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Scher: How I Spent My Saturday Mornings That Summer
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How I Spent My Saturday Mornings That Summer

Hlavacek, Allison

The Prairie Light Review 
Volume 42 Number 1 Article 34 
Fall 12-1-2019 
Ladies And Gentlemen, Step Right Up! 
Allison Hlavacek 
College of DuPage 
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Recommended Citation 
Hlavacek, Allison (2019) "Ladies And Gentlemen, Step Right Up!," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 42 : No. 1 , 
Article 34. 
Available at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol42/iss1/34 
This Selection is brought to you for free and open access by the College Publications at DigitalCommons@COD. It 
has been accepted for inclusion in The Prairie Light Review by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@COD. For 
more information, please contact orenick@cod.edu. 
Ladies and Gentleman, Step Right Up!
Our far-flung crook likable at best,
is here for unyielding success.
Tied to the wheel, as it spins!
Round and Round. 
As you rest, let us entertain.
Wracking your brain, setting the stage, 
while contorting his friendly design.
Beautiful he may be, but dead 
He may seem.
Crime as we say, berserk we portray
preparing for imminent demise.
Piquant! The rich smell of  lies,
so potent and thick.
Allison Hlavacak
Erodent
Like a small spin top, you scurry
tap
                   tap
                                        tap
As your blueberry feet softly touch the ground.
Hiding in tubes about the width of  a cucumber,
and hardy meal awaiting your presence.
Alas that meal was forsaken,
wavering metal above such yellow delight.
The crack vibrated the space,
like the pang of  construction scaffolding.
Allison Hlavacek
29
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Hlavacek: Ladies And Gentlemen, Step Right Up!
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Ladies And Gentlemen, Step Right Up!

Johnson, Michael Lee

The Prairie Light Review 
Volume 42 Number 1 Article 44 
Fall 12-1-2019 
Rain 
Michael Lee Johnson 
College of DuPage 
Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr 
Recommended Citation 
Johnson, Michael Lee (2019) "Rain," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 42 : No. 1 , Article 44. 
Available at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol42/iss1/44 
This Selection is brought to you for free and open access by the College Publications at DigitalCommons@COD. It 
has been accepted for inclusion in The Prairie Light Review by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@COD. For 
more information, please contact orenick@cod.edu. 
Rain
In the rain,
this thunder
on his way home
he rebelled.
He a disco dancer,
single Friday night award winner
on the floor.  High school dropout.
He drove off the road edge.
He was drunk, Jack Daniel’s
was his driving instructor.
Jack Daniel bottle left at grave.
It never rains in a dry casket.
Shelter under this roof,
no worries about cops-
anymore.
Michael Lee Johnson
Backyard Lightning. Tyler Salas, Photography38
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Johnson: Rain
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Rain

Freek, George

The Prairie Light Review 
Volume 42 Number 1 Article 59 
Fall 12-1-2019 
The Hidden World (Tu Fu) 
George Freek 
College of DuPage 
Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr 
Recommended Citation 
Freek, George (2019) "The Hidden World (Tu Fu)," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 42 : No. 1 , Article 59. 
Available at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol42/iss1/59 
This Selection is brought to you for free and open access by the College Publications at DigitalCommons@COD. It 
has been accepted for inclusion in The Prairie Light Review by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@COD. For 
more information, please contact orenick@cod.edu. 
THE HIDDEN WORLD (Tu Fu)
The hollyhocks have
risen above my door.
They’re amazing to behold.
The aroma of  phlox
is honey to my nose.
And the irises grow
where nothing else
seems to grow.
It’s almost a miracle.
Paralyzed,
from her neck down,
the old woman
across the road
stares at those flowers
all day. 
I pray it gives her pleasure
and eases her cares.
But it’s a pleasure I hope
I will never share.
George Freek
49
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Freek: The Hidden World (Tu Fu)
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The Hidden World (Tu Fu)

The Prairie Light Review 
Volume 42 Number 1 Article 62 
Fall 12-1-2019 
2 Star Hotel 
III 
Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr 
Recommended Citation 
III (2019) "2 Star Hotel," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 42 : No. 1 , Article 62. 
Available at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol42/iss1/62 
This Selection is brought to you for free and open access by the College Publications at DigitalCommons@COD. It 
has been accepted for inclusion in The Prairie Light Review by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@COD. For 
more information, please contact orenick@cod.edu. 
            Some Time
 The world is so quiet now.
 I remember noise
 Just not the last time
 I heard it.
 Nothing big or explosive
 Just here one day
 Then gone the next.
 My fingers move
 Across the keys
 Guided by only memories.
 Static mind calmed by hope
 “It’s not gone forever, just give it
 Some time.”
Elaine Chellberg 
            2 Star Hotel
 Never more have I wished
   For paper thin walls
 Plaster white only rivaled
   By your porcelain pale skin
 If  not only to serve 
   As some grand, seeing canvas,
 Littered with words of  our
   Half  drunken slurs
 And cozy expressions of  love
   In a night yearning to stretch longer,
 For if  those walls could tell the tales
   Of  our exploits through and through,
 I’d trace them up, cut them out,
   And frame my adoration for you.
       I I I    
52
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: 2 Star Hotel
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2 Star Hotel

Ligon, Grace

Turning a Hobby into a Life-Long Career:  Making Genealogy My Profession

Crawford, Rae

The Prairie Light Review 
Volume 42 Number 1 Article 1 
Fall 12-1-2019 
Red Riding Hood 
Rae Crawford 
College of DuPage 
Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr 
Recommended Citation 
Crawford, Rae (2019) "Red Riding Hood," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 42 : No. 1 , Article 1. 
Available at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol42/iss1/1 
This Artwork is brought to you for free and open access by the College Publications at DigitalCommons@COD. It 
has been accepted for inclusion in The Prairie Light Review by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@COD. For 
more information, please contact orenick@cod.edu. 
1Crawford: Red Riding Hood
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Red Riding Hood

Mack, James-Oliver

The Prairie Light Review 
Volume 42 Number 1 Article 16 
Fall 12-1-2019 
Selfishness 
James-Oliver Mack 
College of DuPage 
Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr 
Recommended Citation 
Mack, James-Oliver (2019) "Selfishness," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 42 : No. 1 , Article 16. 
Available at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol42/iss1/16 
This Selection is brought to you for free and open access by the College Publications at DigitalCommons@COD. It 
has been accepted for inclusion in The Prairie Light Review by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@COD. For 
more information, please contact orenick@cod.edu. 
Selfishness
I was taught to measure my worth
By how happy 
I make other people
I was shown that my body is composed of  parts
That only exist
For me to pleasure others
I was told that true love is a long series of  compromises
More aptly named
A battery of  self-abuses in a wretched attempt at love
     James-Oliver Mack
Homage to Frida. (at right). Tim Arroyo, Digital Art Piece
12 1
Mack: Selfishness
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College of DuPage

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Nomad: My Autobiography

Get Down

How I Spent My Saturday Mornings That Summer

Ladies And Gentlemen, Step Right Up!

Rain

The Hidden World (Tu Fu)

2 Star Hotel

Turning a Hobby into a Life-Long Career: Making Genealogy My Profession

Red Riding Hood

Selfishness

7,467

11,908