Mama Cocks the Shotgun: Bristol’s Finest Lyric Essays
February 17, 2011 § 4 Comments
To review: Bristol Palin is reportedly writing her memoir.
Memoirist Sue William Silverman found this idea somewhat absurd, given that Palin’s life so far has included 1) being a rather flawed spokesperson for abstinence, and 2) Dancing with the Stars. Memoirist Robin Hemley made a joke about Bristol’s possible future as a lyric essayist. We here at Brevity, deep into our third bottle of Malbec, decided that a Bristol Palin Lyric Essay Competition was just the thing to brighten a dull February.
Yesterday we posted some of our favorite lines from the numerous, wonderful, rich-with-grizzly-bear entries.
Today, we post our winner, and two runners-up.
And then we promise never to mention Bristol Palin again.
Here goes:
THE $25 whopping American dollars WINNER:
Nine Months to Now
A Lyric Essay by Bristol ‘She-Ra’ Palin
As told to Laurie Ann Cedilnik
I.
Mama cocks the shotgun, and we’re off. She has her target, I mine. Her words are bullets, and they fall without mercy. I am hit. Utterly without protection. His seed is a hail of bullets, and I do not duck.
II.
Really craving pickles this month.
The Nifty Runners Up:
Aurora Borealis
A Lyric Essay by Bristol Palin
As told to John Warner
It’s lonely in Alaska. That’s why families are big, so there’s always someone else around, but your family isn’t around, and maybe that’s why you fall into the arms of the handsomest hockey player in town, let him take your clothes off, let him place his hands on your hips and look at you and bring his lips to your belly and call you beautiful, which is something you’ve been taught to value.
Ursidae
A Lyric Essay by Bristol Palin
As told to Amy Butcher
Call me Ursidae. Call me whole.
As a child, I sifted river rock from the sandy collarbone of Wasilla Lake, stood ankle-deep in the cool, crisp water. We were twinned then, the water and I both: each of us free, each of us moving at an inexhaustible speed. The current carried the weight of the world: dandelion seed and pollen.
It was in an inlet in October that I saw him: the bear, that hulking bulge of brown. He stood by the water and then was in it, found a fish and took it whole. He swallowed its flailing, flippy body down.
Thanks to all of our awesome entrants, and congratulations to our winners, and Bristol.
BREVITY's Nonfiction Blog 
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[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Robin Kemp, Cathy Day and Devon Taylor, dinty@brevity. dinty@brevity said: Mama Cocks the Shotgun: Bristol's Finest Lyric Essays: http://t.co/HRi3L6V […]
“Aurora Boralis” was amazing. The others are good, too, but that one (surprisingly) moved me.
[…] John Warner is the author of five books, including his recently released novel, The Funny Man. He serves as editor at large for McSweeney’s Internet Tendency and co-color commentator for The Morning News Tournament of Books, and teaches at the College of Charleston. He was runner up in the Brevity Magazine Bristol Stomp contest. […]