[Newspoetry] vneh III

[Anne Bargar]

The Southern Girls Convention: A Report

Louisville, KY
AP (Associated Poets) After a five hour drive, we found the BRYCCC House
and the convention.  After registering and listening to a band for a
little while, it was decided that we were in need of food stuffs other
than the junk food we had been munching on the way down.  We left the
building and headed up the street, where we were immediately offered
religious materials by a young man wearing a name brand shirt of some
fashion.  He told us that a little truth wouldn't hurt us.  Since the
truth was that wew were indeed very hungry, and he was indeed very
annoying, we told him individualy that we didn't want to read about the
Lord.  He then informed us that "Oh, you'd better do what your friends
tell you."  He was later spotted trying to give a young woman with blue
hair and multiple tatoos the same literature.  I failed to mention that,
if I wanted to hear all about The Lord, I could just wait until The
Jehova's Witnesses conviently came to my home, which they do without fail
whether I want them to or not.

The Good Old Boys who own the antique shop across the street from
the convention watch us for most of the day.  They seem to think that
watching hippies and punks eat lunch is a good use of their time, or maybe
there is something inherent in the way that we are eating that makes us
seem threatening.  We wave and blow them kisses.  I wish I had a camera,
as the picture of two middle-aged white men standing under a sign that
said "Antiques" is just too good to pass up.  

I see an article in the Courier-Journal by someone named Butch John.

Some young Female Yuppies walk through our gathering on the sidewalk
carrying a 4-foot-high inflatable penis.  They go into the bar a couple of
doors over, an uninteresting meat-marketish place called "Cahoots."
Always up for giving the established a surprise, we cheer loudly as the
penis is tossed into the air.

Saturday night, we have a group floss with a really cool woman who is
sharing our space.  She is a school teacher from a Jewish religious school
in California who talks about how she addresses gender differences in her
classroom.

I find myself looking at people.  I am surrounded by freaks with a myriad
of piercings, tatoos, shaved heads, and modes of dress.  We play Scrabble
together.  My inner freak is nourished.

The Urbana Coalition includes Sehvilla, Suzzanne, Karina, Sara, myself.
Austin from Minneapolis came with us.  I find right away that this is a
group I could go a lot more places with.

Sunday afternoon we drive home.  Austin and Suzzanne continue to drive
east with some people and we come back to Illinios.  We drive through
Southern Indiana on the back roads, as I want to avoid sitting on the
interstate on a 95F day in a car with no air conditioning.  Indiana is the
interstate parking lot capital of the world, after all, which is annoying
at best when you're tyring to get somewhere.

-abaz