Thought Of You
By: Chris Phang
every thought of you, fills me with the sweetest emotion,
an eloquence so soft bequeathed by the gods;
every thought of you, fills me with the deepest devotion,
a propagation of fire too irresistible to dismiss.
i love your lips when they’re wet with wine,
the taste as soft as the morning cast dew;
your cold, calm kiss was tender and twenty,
so kiss me sweet with your warm mouth.
thoughts of you surround me so deeply,
a love so intoxicating my blood be spilling;
for you, are my sustenance into a warm, northern wind,
where an arrow of carnations awaits both you and me.
come here baby and merge with me,
you’ll forever be my sweetest solace.
Children of Gold
By: Julia Rosalyn
Born of the waking stars
Our people rise
with the dusty dawn
Carrying war and thunder
in our minds
We swore
that history would be our witness
But we have become mere ashes,
spirits deformed.
We used to weave gold
into our names
And live
with its glistening beauty
Now they spit on our graves
And make us forfeit our identity
And our string of people scattered
Scuttled pearls
in a retreating tide.
They tore that gold
from our lips
And left us with syllables
of their own
Trading lives for keeps
To watch our colour seep
And our mouths fill with gules.
We were told that
in order to possess
we needed to first exist
To become a being
worthy of a name
that is not our own.
And centuries later they
leave our children stumble
upon the realization
That we were once born
of the waking stars
And our people rose
with the dusty dawn
They carried war and thunder
in their minds
And swore
that history would be their witness.
I beseech you
child of glory
To bare the beauty
of your blood ties
To remember this emblem
studded with spirits:
our story
And make it part of your own.
My children,
I no longer hear our gold
pour from your lips
In its place
is an unfamiliar mist
Your names now stitched
by hands who tell your story
not of your making.
But dear child
We have watched you
Tear through continents
Seeking for a connection
And we must tell you
That you are not an orphan of an empire
You have not been forsaken
For you carry our gold in your soul.
Open Flower, Close
By: Saoussan
We danced under the sky, her golden gaze warm,
Eyes edged with rainbow light
we turned daisy faces upwards.
The sweet tang of hibiscus when
they blossom from a scraped knee.
Hands dripping red, ladybug feet
tap dancing over soft palms.
Our laughter submerged in molasses.
A broken tape,
Sound muffled in longing.
Oh, where did all the sun go?
Shades of Golden
By: Lynn Hor
youngblood and great escapades
with every curious bone and time we bide
the hands of fate decide to call for a change
when two temporalities collide where dreamers hide
head in the clouds
interlaced souls and palms
the winds trail a saccharine fragrance
while two silhouettes glisten in shades of golden
running into endless fields of clover
from reality we fled
with wide-eyed wonder
starring in a perfect vignette
your mellow eyes, with an ever-charming complex
traded hearts as the world around fades to silent
we watch the pretense and safeguards crumble
as the makeshift forts build our very own safe haven
perhaps a figment of my imagination
as i behold the majesty of you, standing before me
was what we had good and true, or a glimpse of fiction
before you cast us into the depths of entropy
head submerged underwater
as your tidal waves drowned me in blue
and set fires to the chambers of methane
with your eveready flames
but now you look at the memories of us in hindsight
with wistful gazes and feelings unfeigned
behind every glaced polaroid, now hold melancholy nights
of your bitter stings and my broken strings
frozen in time; drunken in daze
i behold a forgotten stranger, standing before the mirror
through trials and loss of trust; shattered like a fragile glass
was the price for change that fate had in mind for me
but i remember us in the safe haven of makeshift forts
your mellow eyes – starring in a perfect vignette
saccharine winds and interlaced palms in endless fields of clover
the great escapades where our silhouettes glistened in shades of golden.
By: Chris Phang, Julia Rosalyn, Saoussan and Lynn Hor