“Look what I’ve done with the place,” you say, beaming from ear to ear and I don’t have the heart to tell you I can’t see the difference. You swept out yesteryear with the rest of the rubbish, piled it in a heap but I can still see bones amidst the debris. They shine like…
alternative titles: blood meridian by cormac mccarthy, a spiral down asian hate crimes, an argument against singularity (with us in the middle). If the almighty maketh man as the devil is present, Then he too shares the white-washed image He converses through blinding nature where only The silent put their ears to the ground. Hear,…
if I close them tight enough the lids become a movie screen my mind a film reel I watch as I dream of suburbia sunsets and endless euphoria of wrinkles on my grandmother’s face and weight of my childhood expectations of candle flickers younger than noon and beads falling from best friend’s eyes of subtle…
dear ______, whoever you may be forgive us if our impressions are misguided even with art millennia, Your picture is still fragmented and only visible from a side; between my raised hand we ourselves are still scrolling for the next episode in personal mysticism preach Love against new laws that are really old words better…
The world is a karma system, not in the literal finger-pointing sense. Let in the uninvited guest who keeps on knocking. Each time it comes rummaging and assembling my sentiments back together, I rehearse myself to look at it in the eye, and though in glimpses I see a different excuse it sees the same…
Kien-Ling Liem · Poetry, Visual Arts
this is love this is summer this is complexity walking on an empty street yellow light shining moths flying a song playing but it’s shrouded lucidity but it’s clouded crisp air so sharp it stings just a bit fills my mind with a perverse clarity
Steer away from the water Stay away from the heat Icarus heard his father’s voice As the pair escaped from Crete The boy glided in the air Gaze affixed on the golden What once seemed impossible Was now so close, so sudden And so the wings they beat They carried him through levels Daedalus’s advice…
It won’t stop I wander atop And dangle my feet, Over the nonchalant streets. They come back Not they; it. Consuming me like a never ending psychological pit Slowly but surely, it devours your brain Releasing trapped memories that bring you pain In protest, you grab your head And try to yank it out But…
a hypothetical conversation over coffee gon be lowkey a sense of uniform childlike giddiness the afternoon of a clock past 4 lets in, and it shines all and every serotonin drop that came before us in sure time, i can be just one instead of the persons i’ve been along the way, instead of speaking…
The first man said, “There is a river here,” and tilled the land. Blue veins on the earth, running blood back to the heart; settlements swelled where they flowed and flooded. Malaysia is named for Sungai Melayu. We built our nation on water and every year come monsoon season, it takes some of it back….
The fireworks are bursting sunflowers, showering the town in seeds of gold, loud and beautiful in their hope — all the things I cannot be. Every summer’s end is the same. Sizzling barbeques, wailing car alarms, drunken laughter. And if I press my fingers to the glass I can pretend, even if for a selfish…
What makes a lady a lady? Because the alternative term for lady is gentlewoman, and gentlewoman sounds weird… I know I’m supposed to make that last sentence rhyme, but it’s really hard for ladies to do things sometimes. Surely you agree that women receive less than men – the dimes. And have you noticed…