Notes from the Editor (Dan Golden):

Welcome to bordertown 2010. From the beginning it has been my mission to find the best and most talented writers from the students at MSSU. This has not been an easy task, and at times I felt as though I was searching through the dark. In my journey I have fallen into states of frustration, but I soon realized that my staff and the other people I have worked with are very helpful and talented and became my guiding lights.
    With the help of my staff, bordertown 2010 has become a success. There is a buzz around campus in regards to our publication, and I could not be prouder or more honored to work with the people that made this issue happen.
    I first want to thank my staff, so thank you Howie Lindeman, Stacy Heiskell, Josh Klugh, Katie Farmer, and Tasha Martin. You have all been a great deal of help in compiling, promoting, and creating this issue of bordertown. Without all of your help this issue would not have come together.
    I also want to thank Dr. Joey Brown, and Dr. Michael Howarth. Both of you have given me great advice and direction when I was lost. You two are the heartbeat of bordertown and prove that patience and knowledge are invaluable assets when creating such a work. Without both of your confidence and expertise this issue would not be.
    I also have a special thanks to Joan Kearney. You have been tolerant of my constant nagging, possess a great sense of humor when I was most stressed, and proved tolerant of my blatant misspelling of your name. Thank you for your time, patience, and help.
    Mark Thomas, you took an impossible task and put two of your classes to work on it. You have been patient and efficient, and you and your classes are as much a part of bordertown as anyone else. You took a vague idea and created wonderful cover designs. Thank you for your help and your talented students work.
    I would also like to thank Bill Hunt and Rob Surber for your help in promoting our magazine.
    Lastly, I want to thank all the contributors who found interest in our magazine and submitted their work. Not all of you were able to make it in, but these are the tough choices I must make as an editor. Regardless of your acceptance, I thank you for taking the time to submit your work.

The Origins of bordertown

This is from the 2006 edition of bordertown.  It is the staff note that was written by Charlotte Hopper.

When Dr. Brown and I began to discuss putting together this edition of the literary journal, we realized a difficult task lay ahead of us in naming the journal. The idea of finding a name may sound trivial, but really, the name sets the tone and the flavor for what readers will find inside the cover. Many meetings lay between that initial one and the one where the name bordertown was born. During that time, I lived with this task. It permeated every area of my daily life. And suddenly, there it was.

One evening, my family and I decided to watch Seabiscuit. I had seen it before but had forgotten how poetic a film it is. I became engrossed in the dialogue. At one point, the narrator speaks of a time when the country most needed a drink and its inability to get one because of the laws of this country. So they turned to the bordertown. That statement could have done one of two things--threatened my sensitivities or broadened my understanding. Thankfully, it did the second. You see, good poetry and good writing make you think. They open your mind, introduce new ideas, challenge old ideas and breathe life into dormant faculties. Literary works should serve to strengthen long-held convictions and to change outdated ones.

bordertown is meant to feel regional and look regional. It is where we are, what we are and who we are.

Thank you for the submissions.

The staff of bordertown thanks everyone who submitted works.  We have more than enough works to produce what we feel will be a quality magazine.  During the upcoming weeks, we will be selecting the pieces for the magazine and laying it out.  Final selections will be made sometime in late December or early January.  Check back for updates on what the staff is up to or to see if your work is selected.

Kimberly Sparlin

I like trees, thanks to Tolkien and...
"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you as well as you deserve." -Bilbo Baggins, The Fellowship of the Ring Just Kidding!  I love you all!  People are interesting to me and the passionate ones are inspiring.  I wrote "All By Yourself" as a kind of a memorial for this guy I fell in love with when I was 18.  He was awesome and he broke my heart a million times.  Anyway, he was a good person, but for reasons unknown to me he was a major player.  The spark that ignited this poem came when he texted me two years later and I realized how I was happy and he was alone, just a word at the bottom of a eulogy.  Dead to me.

All By Yourself - Kimberly Sparlin

I was not expecting that.
You called on me and
I remembered long past days
of beauty.
Heavenly thoughts of faraway stars
and hard, black asphalt
frozen in the December night.
You spoke to me and I cried
as I told you how it was at home,
with her and all she went through.
I could see you cared for her
and you never even met,
but it was kind and made me smile.

I was nervous, too,
because I loved you so much
and I knew you would walk away
again, and again
leave me alone for awhile.

It was hell, waiting for
your voice.
Tragic like the
tears wasted
on missing
you.