By Natasha Effendy //
the first sip.
this cup of hot chocolate
fills my belly and mouth
with an inevitable warmth,
making me feel so at home.
the second sip.
suddenly burns me
with nostalgia,
reminding me of
the first time i saw you in that cafe,
drinking hot chocolate.
Part I
Feet in saltwater, head tipped to the sky, the screech of gulls ahead. Idle fishing pole gripped in your palms, disobedient fish swarming below the pier.
A call in the distance that sounds like your mother’s. You turn to holler back -
You blink awake to cool sheets, rat-tat-tat of a fan above. For a second you think you’re home and your brother’s about to rush in, banging at the door, but you know this grey ceiling, the university-issued closet in your periphery.
Coffee. Then consciousness.
We all know that when we talk about Australia, we’ll bring up places like the Sydney Opera House, the Twelve Apostles, Melbourne City Centre, the massive Uluru rock, and the stunningly beautiful Great Barrier Reef. These five national icons attract the lion’s share of its millions of tourists, and have graced the faces of about an equally large number of postcards sold each year.
When the hollow depth within you
Bursts into millions of flames
You’re awakened by your being
A heart thumping so fast
You feel alive
Gasping for breath
To know nothing can be
A better feeling than this...
For our last article of 2018, ECHO has decided at the suggestion of one of our writers, Natasha, to compile a series of passages from our members. The prompt: what…
Red is –
the flush of your cheeks
the autumn leaf in your hair
the smudge of lipstick on your lips
Orange is –
the colour of the sunset against your skin
the fruit you love so
the fence of your father’s house
Ethics is defined as the set of moral principles that govern a person’s behavior or the running of an activity. Unsportsmanlike conduct, similarly, is a term defined as an offence in sports that violates the sport’s generally accepted rules of sportsmanship and participant conduct. Throughout history, there have been instances when the behaviours of certain sportsmen and athletes have been questioned.
i feel his breath
blossom within the radius
of my flushed skin
as his facial features near mine…
my body and nerves stiffen,
ready for what’s to come next.
There I was, standing in front of a bookshelf in a bookstore of a mall on what seemed to be a lazy Sunday afternoon, as the store workers were either idly meddling with their little oblong screens as they stared into it with droopy eyes, or simply deep within the dreams of an afternoon nap, drool seeping its way down the side of their mouths. The store itself wasn’t crowded; a couple of children with their parents – worn, exhausted and withering like ghastly undead cadavers (which is unsurprising considering they were very likely soaked in a midlife crisis), browsing the stationery section or in a panic looking for materials for a last minute school project; and a few others, like me, trapped in ‘decision-making purgatory’ within the aisles of the endless labyrinth of bookshelves.
