The Ballad of Smee

THE BALLAD OF SMEE

There once was an Ogre named Smee

Who had a blue mustache that grew on his knee

He washed it

and combed it

and shined it with wax

Til he smashed it in band with his new tenor sax

Artwork & Silliness by Angie Hoover-Hillhouse

Self- Portrait: Angie

Self-Portrait by Angie Hoover- Hillhouse

Hearing Her

To Hear Her

it all returns.

the dark room,

the shrinking veins,

the strong, rageful pumping at her center

it travels like wind

here and then gone

waking and sleeping on a clock of it’s own

Hearing Her by Angie Hoover- Hillhouse

I wrote this several months after my girlfriend broke up with me in 2004. It’s probably published in my high school livejournal along with other evidence of teenage angst. We all used to feel our feelings very publicly in those days. I’m sure I wrote this hoping that she would contact me out of pity. Now I’m marrying a man, and she’s teaching english to impoverished Ecuadorian children.

Artwork by Leigh Viner

Leigh’s Etsy Shop here:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/LeighViner

Summer

The sun, she reaches down to stroke

the soft red skin of poppies smiling

Heat moves quickly through the garden

Worlds between them blossom bright

Green and Yellow wide awake

holes and corners washed to white

Breaths of light blown into shadows

Til she folds away to sleep

Summer by Angie Hoover- Hillhouse

Artwork: “Lovers” by Arantxa Rueda

More of Arantxa’s Work here:

http://society6.com/ArantxaRueda

Collage: Cynthia

I think collage is really honest. We connect to it in a lot of ways because it’s inherently disconnected pieces that are all thrown– or even organized together to attempt to create some cohesion and meaning.

Caption by Meaghan Merrifield

Artwork: “Cynthia” by Cardboard Cities

Cardboard Cities Shop:

http://society6.com/cardboardcities

End of “Hypochondraway” Story

ENDING OF “HYPOCHONDRAWAY”

Lizzie gawked in horror as bloody tears wandered down my face.

” Oh my! Don’t worry, mam. You are just having an abnormal reaction to the- -oh dear.”

Her eyebrows crinkled as she tried to resist a frown. Her broken wincing face got smaller and smaller until I couldn’t see it at all anymore. I could feel my body losing itself, becoming more and more empty every minute, with every intense suck of the machine. All that blackness was seeping out forming small puddles of me on the floor. Drip. Drip. Drip. Into the cracks between the tiles. Lizzie’s voice swooped in: “I can’t! I can’t! Everything is leaking out! It’s everywhere, she’s everywhere!”.

I fell back and stared at the snowy white ceiling. “You’ll soon be forgotten”,it said brightly.

by Angie Hoover- Hillhouse

Cricket & Engenue: Artwork by Leigh Viner

Cricket by Leigh Viner

Engenue by Leigh Viner

Leigh’s Etsy Shop here:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/LeighViner

More about Meaghan and Angie

We are best friends! And partners (in business, not in oral pleasure)

Meaghan works for the Australian Consulate (where she met Thor, but will not allow Angie to post a photo) and Angie works at a Community College as a Writing Tutor and Student Instructor. She doesn’t understand that this is a sort of boring fact and frequently discusses argument structure at parties…. effectively scaring away all the interesting people.

We love these things!