The wise older fish

By Brandon Roberts

Class of 2024

Hometown: Redmond, OR

Majors: Secondary Education and History

Learning to Speak

By Christa Vander Wyst

—after Doireann Ní Ghrofia

For years I listened

to word after word—

how a spondee roared

but a dactyl backed down

from the fight.

I studied the ways

in which words

were hacked apart,

rearranged and sewn

back together.

I learned how to minimize

the seams, how to punctuate

suddenly and completely,

how to slide down a comma

and climb back up.

When I held a pencil

for the first time,

it felt as soothing

as a pacifier.

Except the instrument

didn’t muzzle my voice,

but set it free.

Something Has Died

By Libby Shorkey

Is chivalry dead

if he says sorry

when he slips

out? Tugging me

closer, plugging

himself back in

and maintaining

the nearness

of our bodies.

PERENNIALISM

By Willem Sturm

Class of 2024

Hometown: Anchorage, AK

Major: Music