Poetry

Denia Gooden – Broken Glass, From Me to Him, The Woman

Denia Gooden is a 21-year-old Senior attending Lycoming College. She is originally from Memphis Tennessee and plans to return home to become a middle school teacher after she graduates. Denia started writing poetry during her freshmen year of college originally to cope with being in a new environment so far from home. Now, Denia writes poetry to reflect on periods of her life in a therapeutic way. All of Denia’s poems are feelings that she has felt and could only express in writing.

Julia Martin – End Song, Very High God

Julz Martin is a senior at Lycoming College, with majors in painting and art generalism and a K-12 Art Education Certificate. Poetry and songwriting are hobbies of hers. To follow her journey, follow @julzagain on instagram! 

Sarah Bach – Anatoli Burgoski

Sarah Bach (she/her) is an Astrophysics major and aspiring writer in her sophomore year at Lycoming College. She hopes to combine scientific and social knowledge into meaningful and relevant writing. She has a particular interest in nuclear history and science fiction.

Art

Joli Innerarity – Please Do Not Touch, Fragile by Design

Joli Innerarity is a Freshman majoring in Business. She’s a children’s book illustrator with seven published works and a passion for whimsical, story-driven art. Her work often explores imaginative worlds that balance lighthearted whimsy and deeper emotional themes.

Megan Klansek – Untitled

Megan is a senior with a double major in Communication and Media Studies and Fine Arts with a specialization in photography. She is also involved with the Lycoming Swim team. In her free time she enjoys spending time with her family, reading, and creating artwork. She has been interested in art since her childhood but really developed a love for photography in high school. For her senior thesis, she is doing analog photography and experimenting with double exposures and overlaying photos on top of each other. 

Kira Clements – Reaching for Nostalgia

Kira is a sophomore majoring in criminology, and minoring in both philosophy and painting. They are an avid player (and loser) of intramural badminton and the housing manager for the creative arts society! 

Nonfiction

Alex Setliff – A Review of “One Piece” in One Day

Alex is a senior here at Lycoming College pursuing a degree with the majors of Religion and Film and Video Arts. He has never submitted to the Tributary before, but after the experience that led him to write this submission, he knew this would be a good opportunity to express my opinions about art that he’d care about. While it would be much more his speed to write about something that related to his majors, he decided to challenge himself and examine a piece of media that he was not familiar with. The experience that he had that led him to write the submission and the experiece of writing the submission allowed him to partake in art that he had not considered having deeper themes regarding humanity. Through this process, he has expanded his perspective of art and wishes to share his experience with others. 

Editors

Managing Editor – Chase Bower

Poetry – Eliza Flanigan

Fiction/Poetry – Charlie Bach

Art – Alexis Rockwell

Art – Maddie Kracker

I found myself in people and

the girls I claimed to love.

I threw my fits and skipped my class

and I almost gave it up.

I gave you all I had. I tried

to take it back, at times,

and I wouldn’t now

if I had the choice. And I

walked in an angel and

came out a sinner.

But God, I fucking did it. I

made it through the winter.

And every time

I thought I was alone,

You pulled me out

And showed me I was home.

Late night meetings,

but can’t open my eyes.

Shit talk addiction,

let’s go on a drive.

YouTube in my living room;

Ran out of my good shampoo;

Breakfast in the afternoon.

There’s a party, can I come too?

There’s a party, could we come too?

Should I take an edible or smoke a bowl?

I find myself where I found you,

finding myself where I find you.

I saw her

She sat there with a comforting smile

With me in her arms as I cried

I wailed as I told her how long I’ve been stuck

After all I tried

She wiped my tears

Caressed my forehead

And told me things that I’ve already heard

But I cried again

This time it held me

For it was her word

She laid me on her chest

And rocked me as she sang a lullaby

The smooth pattern of her heart matched her voice

Pulling me to a calm cry

Being able to think cleared I wiped my eyes

Wondering who this woman could be

No longer blinded by my tears

I see her and I know she sees me

I looked her in her eyes as I thank her for her care

She did not speak

Just a smile and a stare

I no longer wondered who this woman could be

I recognized this woman

For this woman was me

He asked me what is love.

I told him to imagine that he was stranded in a desert

and just as he was about to take his last breath,

He hears water splashing nearby

I told him to lie on his back

straighten his spine

and watch the tension leave his bones

while basking in his calm relaxed sigh

I told him that love is more than an emotion

That it is a state of mind

I told him that in order to love you must hate

For they are both of the same kind

What is love, He asked me.

I wanted to say that…

Love is how all the smooth and rough parts of his skin

molds together and glows in the light

Or that love is how his structure is a puzzle

Gently hand picked

piece by piece down to his height

I wanted to tell him that he was love

But I didn’t want to come off too strong

I stared into his eyes

Touched his face

And assured him nothing was wrong

He trembled in my hand

And quickly turned away as a tear escaped his eye

And in that moment

I told him that he was love

For love is when perfection cry.

In this mirror

I reflect a girl that isn’t me

On the outside

I recognize her skin and features

But her mental is limited

Unlike the woman I claim to be

She is so beautiful

With curves from her lips down to her thighs

But her soul screams her truth

That behind those eyes

Are endless wars and cries

And she tries

So frequently to stop the cycle

Because she knows

That once this obstacle goes

She will consistently grow

Beginning a state of revival

My only hope is for this girl to become stronger

In this reflection

I now see her battle clearer

An agonized soul

Staring at me through a mirror

I know I’m right.

“That’ll be 200 dollars a day for a drug addiction.”

said the prophet cashier.

I take the altar’s wine, even though I’m sober.

Sleep’s darkness was too much

until he woke Me up in the dark.

“Now I am the light of the world

and there will be no need for lamps”

said the prophet TV.

I glanced outside and saw a lightning bug

just like Me.

I’ve seen him before.

He’s the god-fearing

prophet bishop droning: “there is no

‘gods’, they are just one!”

I let the ashes fall from My mouth to My shirt.

I press them into the fabric and they stain.

I’m in the moment.

This all started when I claimed to my friends that I could read all of One Piece in twenty-four hours.  

For some context on this self-imposed challenge, One Piece is a popular Japanese manga that started in 1997 and has since been publishing at a consistent rate into the present. Over the nearly three decades of the manga’s existence, it has accumulated over 1,100 chapters featuring over a hundred characters and thirty-three story arcs. I hope this paints a picture of the sizable task that I had put before myself. Despite this, I gleefully dived into One Piece with a smile on my face and with the support of my friends.  

I didn’t finish it. Starting at noon on a Friday and ending at noon the next day, I made it just over the halfway point. After twenty-four hours of nearly non-stop reading, except for falling asleep a couple of times, I ended at chapter 606 out of 1162 (at the time that the challenge was conducted). Based on these results, I am confident in saying that all of One Piece can be read in forty-eight hours. After my experience, though, I would not recommend that anyone who wants to genuinely enjoy One Piece read it in the way that I did.  

However, reading half of the story in one-go did give me an opportunity to look at One Piece in a temporally connected context. While I don’t know what will happen beyond the point that I stopped, this experience has given me an idea of the themes being presented throughout the whole narrative. As such, this review is not intended to discuss whether or not I enjoyed it and if I recommend others to read it. Rather, I will examine the primary themes of the story that are revealed over the length of the manga. My hope is that this will give people a clearer understanding of how the themes of One Piece allow it to be universally popular across different cultures.  

Recently, protesters in Indonesia, Nepal, and the Philippines have been protesting against their respective governments with the usage of the pirate flag seen in One Piece. While it is obvious that the usage of the flag in these protests demonstrate the manga’s popularity, I also view the flag’s usage as a recognition of its meaning within the story. As I have alluded to, One Piece is about pirates. Specifically, the story revolves around a crew of pirates, known as the Straw Hats, and their quest to find the “One Piece”. The “One Piece” is the classic hidden treasure trope that is a standard in pirate fiction, but in the story of the magnamanga it is a treasure with the ability to change the course of the entire world and is therefore desirable to every faction of characters.  

The manga makes it very clear that societal change is wanted within the story world, as it is controlled by an exceedingly powerful and maliciously corrupt global government. The oppression of this world government manifests throughout the story in it’s military, the Marines, who are a constant threat to the protagonists and the common people of the world. Beyond the Marines, though, other villains emerge to subjugate the masses for their own gain. Almost every story arc, with a few exceptions, revolves around the Straw Hats saving a specific location from the oppression of either an individual villain or the world government. This framework for the story arcs, to me, is the core of the message behind the grander story of One Piece.  

To further illustrate what this core theme of One Piece is, I want to highlight the nature of pirates and piracy in the story world. At the world at large, pirates are seen in a negative light as multiple characters associate them with plundering, violence, and a general lack of morals. However, through the antics of our pirate protagonists seen throughout the manga, the reader becomes endeared to characters who align themselves with the pirate cause. Most of them are not portrayed as being overtly violent and maliciously self-serving but are rather portrayed as people who genuinely want to help others out of pure humanity. 

Let’s take the main character of the manga, Monkey D. Luffy, as an example of the difference between the expectations of pirate behavior and the reality of their personality. Luffy’s mission in the story is to find the “One Piece” and become “The King of Pirates”, both goals revealing that Luffy is both ambitious but also selfish. This point is reinforced by Luffy’s large appetite and general disregard for the rules established in a specific location. However, throughout the course of the story, Luffy demonstrates at multiple times that he is willing to put himself in life-or-death situations for the sake of others. Whether this is him helping one of the members of his pirate crew or saving an entire country from tyrannical destruction, Luffy puts his goals aside so that others are not oppressed by stronger forces. Even though his goals are selfish, Luffy himself is a caring and compassionate individual who wants the betterment of others.  

This idea, that a pirate has selfish goals but goes about those goals in a humanitarian way, is displayed by multiple characters throughout the story. Since these characters are usually contrasted with the villains of the manga, I view this idea as the core message of One Piece. It doesn’t matter if your pirate, a Marine, or an ordinary person just trying to live, compassion will conquer oppression.  

In the world we live in today, this message resonates in multiple cultures and breaks the societal boundaries of the “West” or the “East”. Everyone is facing some form of oppression in their society, so a story about those living outside the pre-made standard of the oppressors fighting against them through compassion and common humanity is bound to become popular. Apparently, One Piece is popular enough for peaceful protests to sprout worldwide and challenge the established orders of corrupt governments.  

I should clarify that this does not mean that One Piece is calling for every government in the world to collapse. Rather, I hope this review shows that One Piece advocates compassion as the main vehicle for positive societal change. Now, I must admit that this could not be at all what the writer of One Piece intended for the story. After all, I did only read half of it in a condensed form. However, whether the writer wants this or not, people from around the world are using the image of One Piece to fight oppression. Humanity is core to the story of One Piece, as it should be to everyone’s story. 

Alexis (Lexi) Rockwell is a contributing art editor for the Tributary. Lexi is an Art History and Studio Art dual major and plays an active role in the arts at Lycoming College. Her interest and dedication to art and representation is what drove her interest in working alongside the editors at the Tributary. She intends to uphold the values of the Tributary when evaluating art submissions and is excited to see all the creative projects the students at Lycoming College have to offer.

Outgrown Spaces

“Outgrown Spaces” (2025) is a visual representation of personal growth and anticipation. The artwork itself is a combination of digital collage, chemical transfer, physical collage, and painting.

The first aspect of the work was the digital collage. Using a free photo editing software, I made the collage using imagery that adhered to the theme I was working with. The image was then inverted so the second process could take place. Next, I used software to enlarge the collage from its original 8.5×11 inches to 24×29.5 inches.

I printed the collage off using an inkjet printer, the key here being to print it in color. The collage was printed in pieces on 8.5×11-inch sheets of paper. From there, I reassembled the collage to be completed in its 24×29.5-inch size.

After that I began the chemical transfer process. Using compressed spray-on acetone, a 24×29.5 sheet of paper, and the completed collage, I began the process. I would spray the ink side of the printed collage with the acetone, lay it face down on the paper, and use a wooden edge to rub and transfer the ink to the large sheet of paper.

The chemical transfer was a time-consuming and gentle process. After the image was transferred and dried, I used cut scrapbook paper, pastels, and elements from a psychology textbook to create the physical collage aspect of the piece. I adhered the elements to the collage using a light layer of archival glue so as not to damage the transfer process.

I finished the piece by using acrylic paint to paint the butterfly wings. The four aspects to this work (digital collage, chemical transfer, physical collage, and painting) took me three weeks to complete.

The most challenging aspect of this process was the chemical transfer, as it is a delicate and time-focused process. I enjoyed using a combination of mediums and processes to create this artwork, as I feel it relates more to the overarching themes I was considering while creating this work.

Charlie Bach (he/she) is a sophomore at Lycoming college who studies English Literature and French. She’s the assistant managing editor of The Tributary, and she enjoys writing poetry and literary fiction (while drawing cartoons on the side).

Martyrs

“If the mountains of Lebanon could tell us their story, we should see them dyed in the blood of martyrs…”

– My great aunt, Layyah Barakat (1858-1940)

As a child of the mulberry trees,

You knew the divine truth

Of the oranges and apricots that grew

Over a dark, endless ravine.

You plunged into that vast unknown,

Believing in His will, unwavering,

His faith in you.

“Those queer American missionaries,

Hide your children, away, away.”

Auntie, I know you to be tired

Of puppetry and massacres,

Hungry and weary, barefooted, half-naked,

The smell of blood where once was sweet,

Fruitful, blooming flowers. Now it’s acidic, metallic,

And your bible’s ripped open, shredded by Abrahamic men. Western Christians, Eastern Muslims,

Those who pierced into your father,

Cutting down his prayers

With a carving knife.

Shaping, skinning, butchering…

He bled out in front of your eyes.

I understand why you’re a traveller, Layyah,

Dodging whizzing bullets, stepping over corpses…

Marching forward into His uncertain creation,

While dyed in the blood of martyrs.

“McGlue” Review

One day, back when I used to work at a closing Rite Aid, I arrived an hour early to my shift. Not wanting to spend any extra time in a building foggy with mold and dust particles, I loitered in the nearby Starbucks to read the entirety of McGlue, Ottessa Moshfegh’s first novella.

I was with it for the first 50 pages, and then a switch flipped, and I promptly got tired of it. I enjoyed Eileen despite its dark themes, and I liked the movie rendition for it as well. However, something about Moshfegh’s amateurish style did nothing to suspend my disbelief at the countless historical inaccuracies. Maybe it’s my fault for diving so deep into queer history, but when an author writes visceral and upsetting homophobia into their novella, is it too much to ask for it to be historically accurate?

I’m talking about the character named the f-slur. That’s what an actual character is called. Or, it’s more what the narrator calls him out of a feeling of internalized homophobia (I doubt his mother saw him as a newborn and decided to name him that). McGlue, the narrator, is both attracted to him and cruel to him because of it. Here’s the thing, though: the f-slur as it’s used repeatedly throughout the novella was not used in this way until the 1910s-1930s. Currently, we are on a sailing vessel in 1851.

One thing I’ve learned is that words are always older than we think they are, but 80 years is a bit of a stretch. In my humble opinion, when writing sensitive topics you always need to do a little extra research to be sure you portray it correctly. Words, especially slurs, have power. McGlue felt burdened by its lack of care. For this reason, I can’t recommend it. On a more positive note, the care Moshfegh gave her stories only increased the more she wrote, and she remedies this problem in her later work.

The light of a thousand suns

flashed in the back of his eyes.

Photon beam,

70 billion eV strong

shot through his head.

Do you think the Radium Girls would have visited him?

Showed him their rotting jaws

as his brain swelled

and his face went numb?

Would they have stood by him and nodded?

Solemn, resigned,

as his care was denied

on account of fine print.

For the money they fought for fell uselessly

in their weakened hands

as they died,

too little, too late.

What did they expect?

For the glowing dial you must

tear your jaws,

rip out your teeth.

Fall at the folly of scientific men.

For the cost of safety you must

let the warning bulb fizzle

and die.

Let the lock rust

and shatter.

Fall at the feet of the great holy beam.

For the ego of man

Let your faces rot,

your money burn,

and your medicine be ripped

from your idle hands.

Across time, countries, the iron curtain.

Bodies strung between courts,

waiting on the glowing dial.

How cost efficient is the human soul?