DigitalCommons@C.O.D.

Artist Statement: Tomorrow was because everyone is stuck at home in quarantine but I just wanted to remind everyone that everything we are missing will be here Tomorrow. Enjoyhttps://dc.cod.edu/everywhen/1000/thumbnail.jp

Donnerson, Donavan

Tommorow

Sula, David

The Prairie Light Review 
Volume 42 Number 2 Article 57 
Spring 5-1-2020 
The Gift 
David Sula 
College of DuPage 
Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr 
Recommended Citation 
Sula, David (2020) "The Gift," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 42 : No. 2 , Article 57. 
Available at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol42/iss2/57 
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 Gift                                                              David Sula
The buzzing air conditioner dangling in the upper corner of 
the large tiered classroom blasted Thomas’s back with continuously 
unpredictable sporadic puffs of chill. He coughed to suppress a 
shiver, and he curled his fingers into fists, digging his nails into 
his palms to distract his impatient brain from his discomfort. A 
forced smile helped mask his eagerness to end this frigid hell. He 
wished the goosebumps dotting his arms were as easy to conceal. 
Every tiny hair on Thomas’s arms and legs stood on end as though 
subjected to static charge.
Caleb’s head poked out from behind an enormous canvas in 
the middle of the room. His brow wrinkled in consternation as his 
eyes darted from his painting to his model and back again.
 His lip curled down in a frown. “Hmm.”
“Something wrong?” Thomas asked. He worried that the 
opportunity to clothe himself had been delayed yet again. He had 
already been on display for over an hour, propped up on this icy 
metal stool with every inch of skin exposed. They were alone in the 
lecture hall—Caleb reserved it for privacy—but even in isolation 
with the narrow windows of the doors taped over with black 
garbage bags, Thomas felt awkward and vulnerable to be naked in 
a classroom.
Caleb stroked his chin as he doubted what he’d painted so 
far. “Your legs look weird.”
“Gee, thanks.” Thomas glanced down at his hairy shins, 
knobby knees, and disgustingly pronounced calves.
“I mean in the painting, babe. It looks off.” He did that 
painter thing where he extended his arm and toggled the angle of a 
thumb’s up.
“Need another set of eyes?” Thomas hoped desperately for a 
‘yes’ so that he could demount from the uncomfortable seat. 
His frigid butt cheeks were falling asleep. He wondered what 
sort of fiendish miser running the art department was responsible 
for supplying metal stools for nude models.
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“No, no. Stay there.” Caleb took a step back, tilted his head, 
and grimaced. “If we’re made in God’s image, He did not like artists.” 
With a sigh, he dipped his brush back into the tan plop of 
paint on his palette and resumed his work. Thomas’s smile wavered. 
He wished he could rub his arms and enjoy a few fleeting moments 
of friction warmth. This was such a stupidly long process. Why 
couldn’t Caleb have just taken a quick photograph for reference? 
He thought bitterly. This seemed unnecessary. If Thomas had 
known ahead of time how long he would be perched in this pose, 
he would have...well...he wouldn’t have made a different decision, 
but he would have certainly voiced concerns and maybe requested 
they do this in a warmer room. Why couldn’t Caleb be like other 
boyfriends and have a birthday that could be mollified with dinner 
and a show, a nice new shirt, or a T. Swift CD? No, Caleb had to be 
married to his art, leaving Thomas less as a boyfriend and more as 
whatever the male equivalent of a mistress was. 
Thomas tried not to be bothered too much by that. He knew 
how important painting was to his boyfriend. The last thing Thomas 
wanted was to pressure his partner to spend more time with him 
at the expense of his craft, but it seemed like Caleb spent so much 
time painting in the various campus art studios. Sometimes it 
forged a strain, but art came first.  Thomas knew that when they 
started seeing each other, and he wanted to be supportive. 
Now that supportiveness was coming back to bite him. 
When Thomas had asked Caleb what he wanted for his birthday, 
he excitedly exclaimed without a moment’s hesitation, “I want to 
paint you.” Thomas had agreed to it through a smile of clenched 
teeth. He tried to think of it as being brought into Caleb’s world, as a 
chance to spend time together and support his boyfriend’s painting, 
but it didn’t come without its own set of unpleasantries. Thomas 
thought back to before he started dating Caleb how mortified he 
would have been just to share a dick pic on dating apps. When this 
was all over, he would have to come to terms with his full bare body, 
and all of its accompanying flaws, being immortalized in acrylics. 
It wouldn’t just be a few hundred pixels that could be hidden away 
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The Prairie Light Review, Vol. 42, No. 2 [2020], Art. 57
https://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol42/iss2/57
on a phone. It would be on the largest sized canvas that the school 
allotted to grad students, possibly in a gallery or at the very least his 
boyfriend’s portfolio.
 When Thomas had first walked into the art studio earlier, 
clutching his robe tightly around himself, he had been struck with 
horror to see just how big the canvas was. Thomas did his best 
to keep stifling his anxieties and discomforts, both physical and 
emotional, as Caleb, brushstroke by brushstroke, created a nearly 
full-sized mimic of him. For all the cold and muscle stiffness, the 
worst was yet to come. By the time this was over, Thomas would 
face this acrylic reflection of himself, and unlike the mirrors he so 
often frowned at, he’d have to grin and lie and say this looked good 
because even if the craftsmanship was as excellent as what Caleb 
usually produced, at the heart of it all, the subject matter would be 
something Thomas would be unable to not loathe.
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Sula: The Gift
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English

The Gift

LeBlanc, Daisy

The Prairie Light Review 
Volume 42 Number 2 Article 69 
Spring 5-1-2020 
A Delicacy in Time 
Daisy LeBlanc 
College of DuPage 
Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr 
Recommended Citation 
LeBlanc, Daisy (2020) "A Delicacy in Time," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 42 : No. 2 , Article 69. 
Available at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol42/iss2/69 
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. 
A Delicacy in Time                                     Daisy LeBlanc
The moon is bright enough to dimly light the charcoal sky
Spotted stars can hardly muster the energy to keep themselves 
visible
Soft rumbling snores from my slumbering love bring me to 
peace
Time slows down almost to a stop
It’s a different universe when everyone else is asleep
The night hushes a calm surrender to the weight of day to day 
expectation
This moment is delicate 
A glass vase falling through mid-air
Until it smashes to pieces against the floor silently
The sound is delayed...
And with the crash, the day begins
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LeBlanc: A Delicacy in Time
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A Delicacy in Time

COVID-19 and the Gaming Industry: Manufacturing, Retail, Esports and Gamification. Global Chats: COVID-19 Focus is a series of talks hosted by Dr. Julia DiLiberti, Professor of Humanities and Global Education Liaison, Maren McKellin, Manager of Field and Experiential Learning, and Sue Kerby, Coordinator of Study Abroad. The talks will feature College of DuPage faculty and other experts and their perspective of how the pandemic is affecting people and places all over the world in a variety of subjects, including biology, psychology, humanities, health, fitness and economics. Maren interviews Steve Santello, Assistant Professor and Co-Chair of Computer Information Systems, about the impact of COVID-19 on the gaming community, including manufacturing, retail, Esports, gamification of curriculum and the therapeutic benefits of gameplay

Santello, Steve

McKellin, Maren

Episode 4: COVID-19 and the Gaming Industry

Dr.Julia DiLiberti interviews Shingo Satsutani, Professor of Japanese and Vice President of the American Association of Teachers of Japanese, to get his perspective on the pandemic affecting Japan and the 2020 Olympics moving to 2021

Satsutani, Shingo

diLiberti, Julia

Episode 2: Japan\u27s Response and the 2020 Olympics

Choudhury, Elora

The Prairie Light Review 
Volume 42 Number 2 Article 22 
Spring 5-1-2020 
The Body of a Storm 
Elora Choudhury 
College of DuPage 
Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr 
Recommended Citation 
Choudhury, Elora (2020) "The Body of a Storm," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 42 : No. 2 , Article 22. 
Available at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol42/iss2/22 
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 Body of a Storm                              Elora Choudhury 
The night’s terror flashes its mirage of light. Sparks of light 
strike and electrify the ground with its brutal hits. The 
moon is a pulsing heart, the clouds its surrounding chest 
cavity, and the lightning bolts are divulging veins and 
arteries. Mother Nature rattles the earth’s rib cage with life.
A Thousand Icaruses                                      Adam Fotos
the orange robes dissolve
in and out of the 
white that settles over the temple’s gardens, 
the mist that wets the stones beneath my
feet. In a circle I walk around the chedi counting
   dead moths
piles of wings lie, 
scorched, twitching,
etched with continents and 
galaxies each 
wing a hand-painted kite, a cosmology
broken,
torn by 
a halogen god, the spotlight
that shines on the face of the King
at the base of the temple in a circle of
gold.
The chedi erupts from the mountain forest,
a round monolith whitewashed 
with fog – 
Someone sweeps the moths away.
I breathe clouds.
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Choudhury: The Body of a Storm
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The Body of a Storm

Kagin, Ethan

The Prairie Light Review 
Volume 42 Number 2 Article 33 
Spring 5-1-2020 
The Unwanted Treasure 
Ethan Kagin 
College of DuPage 
Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr 
Recommended Citation 
Kagin, Ethan (2020) "The Unwanted Treasure," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 42 : No. 2 , Article 33. 
Available at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol42/iss2/33 
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 Unwanted Treasure                               Ethan Kagin
Listen all ye to a tale,
Which starts at night in a stormy gale
A man moves slowly through the land,
With priceless treasure in his hand
He wants to share it, a light so dim,
But other fools will not let him
He carries values, he carries strength,
But it’s not precious, so they think
He knows it is, he tells them so,
His gift will help them learn and grow
We will not take it! The mob cries out,
And far behind him, he hears a shout
Here come the riders, through rain and night
They thunder towards him armed to fight
He runs faster, he knows not where
Who and what he finds, he does not care
Irony, he thinks, he protects the prize
From to whom he offered it, the unwise
The men catch up, they strike him down
He lays disgruntled on the ground
They pry the treasure from his grip
And with the rainfall, his teardrops drip
They destroy it, break it down
His potential, shattered on the ground
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Kagin: The Unwanted Treasure
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The Unwanted Treasure

Crawford, Rae

The Prairie Light Review 
Volume 42 Number 2 Article 39 
Spring 5-1-2020 
Frida 
Rae Crawford 
College of DuPage 
Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr 
Recommended Citation 
Crawford, Rae (2020) "Frida," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 42 : No. 2 , Article 39. 
Available at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol42/iss2/39 
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. 
Frida                                                               Rae Crawford
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Crawford: Frida
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Frida

Blanco, Tania

The Prairie Light Review 
Volume 42 Number 2 Article 43 
Spring 5-1-2020 
Living Water 
Tania Blanco 
College of DuPage 
Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr 
Recommended Citation 
Blanco, Tania (2020) "Living Water," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 42 : No. 2 , Article 43. 
Available at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol42/iss2/43 
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. 
Living Water                                                  Tania Blanco
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Blanco: Living Water
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Living Water

The Prairie Light Review 
Volume 43 Number 1 Article 6 
Fall 12-1-2020 
Editorial Team 
Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr 
Recommended Citation 
(2020) "Editorial Team," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 43 : No. 1 , Article 6. 
Available at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol43/iss1/6 
This Prefatory Note 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. 
Editorial Team
 Editor in Chief 
 - Jolie Vega
 Production Editor 
 - Wren Dorris
 Marketing Editor 
 - Grace Rodriguez
 Assistant Editors 
 - Camila Casella
 - Melina Kline
 - Connor Pilman
 Faculty Advisor 
 - Adam Fotos
Editor’s Note
First and foremost, I would like to thank everyone who submitted 
their work to PLR; for continuing to create during such difficult 
times, and for your support and interest in the Prairie Light Review. 
I would also like to thank Student Life, both for their help in 
shipping out the past Spring 2020 volume and for their continued 
support of the journal. Their assistance has been invaluable and 
without them, we would be unable to get physical issues shipped 
out to our contributors. Lastly, a huge thank you to the Prairie 
Light Review’s editorial team and our faculty advisor Adam Fotos, 
for all of their hard work and dedication. It is thanks to them, the 
volume you hold in your hands was made possible. Through their 
perseverance, we were able to overcome the trials and tribulations 
of constructing the journal virtually. 
As for me, this is my first semester as editor in chief of the Prairie 
Light Review, and I look forward to many more! It’s been a blast to 
work with such a talented team and to produce a journal that I am 
truly proud of. The thematically-based Fall 2020 journal arranges 
the works by Nature, Communication, Death, Memory, and Self. 
It is my sincerest hope that everyone enjoys this issue and all the 
talent and hard work that went into it! Thank you very much! 
-Editor in Chief of Prairie Light Review, Jolie Vega 
Cover: Night Walks, Caroline Bell
prairielightreview.weebly.com 
cod.edu/student_life/publications/prairie_light_review
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et al.: Editorial Team
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