7.21.2010

Issue #10 THEME

Hi Overkillers!
Just a little heads-up for our next issue-- the theme will be TIME. It being our tenth issue and all, we're interested in exploring the past and future of Overkill...and Allegheny! (I'm particularly dealing with how much time flies, embarking on my senior year -- GAH!)

(Allegheny's bicentennial is coming up (2015). I hope those of you lucky enough to attend the college at that time will read this and ponder how much time has gone into making your college what it is today. It baffles me how much has changed from just 200 years ago when Allegheny started...American values, traditions, beliefs, the roles of people of all races, all sexes, etc.) We hope to unpack some of those changes in this issue.

As always, you aren't required to abide by the theme when creating/sending in your submissions. It's just there for a little direction. Send anything and everything to ACoverkill@gmail.com.

viele küsse.
katrina

Overkill #9 - Original Poetry by Erin Dakas, '13

Mobile Adoration

At 9:43, I wait for you to text me.
This is the world we have built,
an abstraction made tangible
through technology:
devotion through a cell phone.
And how will we kiss?
Through the screen?
We can’t hold each other.
How will you tell me
that you love me?
You don’t.
No new message.

Overkill #9 - Original Poetry by Dave Valentine, '10

Vatican City: Monday, December 22, 2008

He says, today,

that I am a destruction
and that I will bring mankind to damnation,
and that the eradication of me trumps saving our rainforests,
and that I am a deviation, an irregularity, a wound.

But, I say, today,

that I am a work of God just like him,
and that my heart beats the same as his,
and that my body breathes in time with his,

and that when he hurts me, I fall down too,
and that my scars linger just as his do,
and that what he asks of me is to stop being human,

and that his laws tell him to love thy neighbor,
and that I am a neighbor to him, and so I love him,
and that I can love more truly than any man who teaches to hate,

and that I know this because I have felt it,
and although I am hated because of him,
and am told not to feel and to cast away

everything that makes me real, I will continue
to be, because anything else would be a lie,
and hasn't he said, even today, that lying is evil, too?

Overkill #9 - Original Prose by Jacquelyn Marie Shannon, '10

“…seid bereit – Immer bereit"
("…be ready - always ready")

By Jacquelyn Marie Shannon

We showed up at the party wearing blue t-shirts and neckerchiefs like those once
worn by the young pioneers, East Germany’s version of scouting. It wasn’t just any party
though, it was a GDR party. Among youth in Germany, easterners and westerners alike,
there is a phenomenon called Ostalgie, or nostalgia for the east. I suddenly found
myself in head-on collision with this new trend as I walked in to the old Jugendklubhaus,
a building once used for state-sponsored social events for youth when Matt’s host
parents were teenagers. Everyone had arrived dressed up as if the wall had never
fallen. I saw everything from members of former communist youth organizations to
members of the East German military and creative versions of Erich Honecker. Old
commie flags garlanded the walls alongside portraits of Marx and Che and music from
old GDR rock bands like The Phudys played mixed in with Russian beats and other
music that would have been approved by the SED. Matt and I joined a group of his
friends from the local gymnasium and helped ourselves to some Russian vodka and the
old GDR cola Club. Many of the old products from the GDR have once again become
popular and many prefer the nostalgic brands that have made a comeback such as
Spreewald pickles and Moccha-fix Gold coffee. When the wall first fell, everyone wanted
to get rid of anything that would connect them to the east and ran out to buy bananas
and Levis. Now these same bits and pieces are being paraded and hung up on the walls as decorations.

A drunken karaoke session broke out in the back corner to L’Internationale, a
familiar tune, but in a language I couldn’t fully understand.

„Volker, hort die Signale!
Auf, zum letzten Gefecht!
Die Internationale
Erkampft das Menschenrecht.“

Overwhelmed, I asked one of Matt’s friends, a true ossie, what he made of the
ostalgia frenzy. “Would you prefer to return to as it were in the GDR?” I asked. “It’s not
about wanting to return to the past as it was in the GDR really,” he answered, “but to a
time when people had dreams and were hopeful…”
The poetic answer he gave to my question felt out of place amongst a backdrop
of schlagermusik, the stench of sweat and vodka, and old party officials and young
pioneer girls groping each other on the dance floor.
“…a return to a time when we dreamt of crossing new frontiers. You know
frontiers, you’re from Texas.” He took my lack of reply as my agreeing with him, though I
realized that we, too, no longer have frontiers to dream of crossing.