





































SAMANTHA PLUTE 
DESERT SPROUTS 

4 

JACOB JONES 
HOME IN A COUPON 

I drink from a WWII canteen, 
and wear clothes from 4th grade. 
The older the cheaper. 

At the grocery store bartering, 
you buy cheap, I take expired. 
I rub against pine trees, 
to capture the fresh scent. 

I don't just count my pennies, 
I make investments, 
in chicken stock, 
and 100 Grand candy bars. 

I do hygiene in public bathrooms. 
My dentist is a mirror, 
floss, some thread. 
My toothbrush doubles 
on my head. 
Lost a job for workers comp. 
Had six kids as tax write offs. 
Claimed asthma as a handicap, 
to get a better parking spot. 

I sell sod from others lawns. 
And use rubber gloves as condoms 
because it's a five for one. 

My showers are from the rain, 
my baths from the lake. 

45 



I check couch cushions for change, 
at every local waiting room. 
After I've fished a nickel from the urinal, 
I call people with smoke signals. 

They ask me what I'm doing, 
and I explain in smoky language. 
"I'm no recycler, 
but a never stop user" 

I wash all my plastic baggies, 
get 2nd opinions from the pharmacy 
"Hey Pharmacist, am I cheap?" 
"I don't know you've never paid me" 

I light up a cigarette butt 
and wonder if all the cancer 
has been sucked out. 
Figure I should 
cheap out on death 
while I'm at it, 
to even out my investment. 

INDIANA UNfVERSITY SOUTH BEND CREATfVE WRITING AWARD 
2nd Place - Poetry: Home in A Coupon - by Jacob Jones 

46 

BRANDI MILLER 
CHILDHOOD'S LAS. 

The drive to the park took 
traffic. There were only two stoplig 
popular park. But on this beautiful 
ing wheel and drove as fast as traff 
to take forever. With heightening ai 

with her son in her head and hoped 
arrived everything would be ok. 

"Mom, my friend fell in th 
minutes," he said in a voice that so 

"You better not be joking a 
in anger and fear. That's not funny! 

ing. 

"No mom. I swear. He fell 
"Oh, God! Did you call fo1 

"Yeah, we just got off the J 
here mom?" he asked. 

"I'll be there in just a mim 
She didn't even think to as 

matter. Any of them being hurt or 1 
stricted as the faces of each of his 1 
all so young and alive, and every o 
this world would surely miss if the 

How did this happen? Whl 
cally. Her son loved to fish in the r 
years now. This was the first sumrr 
nylon fishing hat that she bought h 
because of the drought this year th: 
concern her as much as it usually d 
bordering on paranoid-respect fo: 
that way, maybe because of her litt 
pool when they were themselves Y' 
from the cold waters because she v 

As she made her way dow1 
a couple of emergency vehicles pa: 
riverbank, she knew, with a sinkini 


