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