Derk Koldewyn

DERK KOLDEWYN resides in North Salt Lake City, Utah, and manages Waldenbooks #1458 in Sandy, Utah. "Sister Dallon Gets Tattooed" is the first chapter in a novel-in-progress titled "Conspiracy Theories." It also won the 1993 Ann Doty Memorial Fiction Award at Brigham Young Uni- versity, Provo, Utah.

Articles

To the single men of the church

who sit singly, as I do, on unkempt
beds in dingy small rooms among their own
litter and cast-off clothes; who slump
against walls watching late-nite TV instead

Becoming a Writer

Early on, in class, the smooth new pencils,
the ice-white paper, copper-bladed rulers,
all spoke order, a progression of lines.

Exercising the Priesthood

A Wednesday evening
down in the back
of the chapel, we played
King of the Mountain on the

Resurrection

One gunmetal day, late fall,
a fat shabby robin tired
of flying in her natural world,
desired to swoop across our couch,

Cap Meets the Prophet Brigham

On the third day he stopped for a deserved rest,
though not intentionally. The bishop, she explained,
was hunting pheasants and wouldn’t be back
for hours. So he collapsed into a straw bed

Sister Dallon Gets Tattooed

Johnny take a walk With your sister the moon Let her pale light in To fill up your room You’ve been living underground Eating from a can You’ve been running away from what you don’t understand U2, “Mysterious Ways” Sister Alice Dallon…

Caught Gull, Plowing

At five, standing at the edge of the field,
Dad up there on the great green Deere,
I must have been scared he’d leave.
He made me an offer: Catch me a seagull

Companionship

We’d had problems, especially lately:
Just last week I snapped at him
and found myself staring into the outraged eyes
of a former national rugby star, his one fist