Set in stone or not?

ART by SANDY LUU WORDS by DORA XU

Would I still have been here, if the waves were calm that day, if the sand didn’t move and sweep away?

Was it one decision that changed it all? How do we know if the right choice was made? How many of us look at the moon wondering who else is looking at it too.

How do I know which choices I made carved this path, this trail in the woods? It can’t be undone, covered and buried by new snow.

I can’t see past the clustered trees to the other path where the roads meet. Is that path clear, sunny with a breeze? or is it icy, dead, and unclean?

Is this path the best one here, or is it the same as the others, dry and blear? Should I stay on this trail and keep near or do I cut through the trees to another path? Maybe the path is muddy or paved and clear or the exact same as the one I’m standing on here.

Who else is looking at the moon too wondering why things are this way? Why this way is the one in the woods they stand on, instead of on a sunny road.

Was this story carved with wood and stone? unchanged, unforgiving; here I’m alone Or is my story drawn with moving sand with waves that beat against the rocks. Changing and moving, like pulsating thoughts.

Who would my friends be if I hadn’t crawled out of the water, refused to be carried by the waves, broken away from the sea?

What perils led me here, am I happy? being pushed by the wind like a sail on stormy seas they told me to get on, to depart before it’s too late. But what if I had stayed on the land?

Or was it pre-carved, my footsteps molded into the stone.

If it wasn’t for the sea, the rocks, the trees the sand spitting into my eyes, the breeze against my cheeks

Dragged by the water, the sail and the trees the forest, like a beacon, calling to me But the rocks and the stone, make me wonder and dream.

Do I go back and cover my footprints with snow, with dirt, or leaves? Are my footprints in sand, washed away with the water and waves? Or are they imprinted in stone, like a fossil, trapped by pressure and time. Rotted away to leave a print, a permanent mark. Unchanged by time, and trapped forever.

Was it a forest with different trails? Or unpredictable like a boat without direction, being carried by the sea. The water and the waves and leaves make sure you can’t see what’s happening. x

WORDS by NATALIA LAXAMANA ART by MARA LI

At first, it felt like something was wrong, Maybe I would wake up and suddenly it would all be okay again.

But no matter how hard I tried to wake up, I was still here

With you no longer by my side.

I never thought this day would come So, I never bothered to prepare for it. Instead, I have a plethora of expertise of the constellations of your mind.

I know exactly what song gets you to clear the dance floor…