The Way of the Mix Tape

Remember when kids actually looked out the windows for an entire car trip, counting "out-of-state license plates and herbies?"

Remember remembering a Lester Young solo in the heart of a dying steel town?

Remember a day in 1938 when Mary McCarthy and Frida Kahlo may have visited New York City at the same time?

Remember where you parked before the game?

Remember the forest, the lake, and the tests you passed as children?

Remember when Fifth and Craft Avenues in Pittsburgh was home to a different theater company, and a nude woman in an art gallery caused a stir? (Maybe some things never change.)

Remember the night of performances in Pittsburgh's Stanley Theatre that turned you into a poet forever?

Remember the living, breathing dog whose collar used to be tied to the end of that rope?

Remember for your beloved who has lost the ability to do so.

Issue 12, full of wonder as always, as a whole is an ode to nostalgia. I've mentioned how I tend toward resonances and themes even when these are not explicit. But this time, it wasn't even conscious. It took contributor/astute reader Jeffrey Zable to bring to light what I had in mind.

I'm not writing the pieces or making the art, but I'm weaving them together. This is part of what I love about making Uppagus, and part of what I hope you enjoy, too.

Keep the poems, short stories, artwork, and general correspondence coming.