PLAYLIST

Playlist by

ALICE BOULIANNE Visual Arts Editor

Warm Time Froze

RIM NAGUIB Contributor

Here he was, handsome as a fairytale Hair flowing in the breeze with ease It wasn't the effect of the cocktail As the shameless cold shoves the breeze Pretty face followed by the sun Captures this timeless essence Butterfly invasion had already begun What a beautiful captivating presence Sober yet hallucinating Striking and hypnotic eyes Making you forget all pieces of advice Given as they are resonating Leaves twirling with a sigh Excitation going undeniably high Can only silently admire As the dream comes to expire Snaps back to reality Falls to the ground, hopelessly Ripped from the dreams I used to imagine without extremes How unfortunate, a broken unstarted fate Feeling intimidated by this unmatchable beauty What is the point to create, if it is already too late? Saw this other company touching you passionately Preferred to ignore the desire by fear of the unexpected Here, now laying with regret of not having acted earlier Stolen happiness or suicide of its own opportunity? Can’t decide, don’t want to bring out this fire The collapsed dream is finally reaching its path, iced What a fatal mistake, that leads to break This innocent hope amplified by this warm fire Transformed unintentionally into a quiet lake As those water vibrations call out of despair

Thank you for thinking of me

ASPEN CRICK Staff Writer

Thank you for thinking of me But it won’t ease the pain That I am dealing with It won’t make this suffering go away Won’t it limit me in my everyday? It truly does And I want to scream at the world

I was fortunate enough To not have to think about accessibility needs at my every step prior to recently But now it’s all I can see

And think

Is there an escalator

An elevator perhaps Anything to make this pain less deafening. Like a wave crashing again the open ocean And now I’m being swept off the shore of the people Oh how I long to go back to that beach where people roam freely Instead here I am

Googling knee braces and how to fix this There shouldn’t be a need for diy pain lessening And now it’s back to deafening I can’t hear anything beyond the “I’m sorry ‘s you have to deal with this” or the “How can I help you?’s” When I don’t even know why this is happening in the first place This no name secret agent is working against me Sending fucking enemies along my legs, knees and hips And I’m just trying to find a sanctuary Please for the love of god Can someone tell me why this god forsaken pain has to be chronic. With its flare ups for no apparent reasons and Not one super-efficient cure and Most of all a loss of the normal Thank you for thinking of me But I think you should give it a rest Cause nothing can save me

worthless paradox

KAYLA FRIEDLAND Contributor

i realized i was a worthless paradox the day i found out that you didn’t love me on that day, i spoke cinnamon sugar into my own wretched spine

one that had concaved for you

one that had danced in the wind and climbed the globe’s carnivorous edges

the one that ate me alive

the world that took me by the wrist and gripped it so tight i thought i meant something to it until i realized that all i could offer was a honeysuckle tongue

sweet sweet words with no destination

i realized i was a worthless paradox the day i found out you could

never

love me

for possibility tasted like the trickling blood beneath the skin on my back for hope tasted better than all of the honeysuckle songs i could sing i have woken up day after day, tracing you into my bed frame, telling my bed sheets how good you are you are sweeter than anything i’ve ever known you are all of my complexities and the parasite that reaps within my soul you are everything and nothing all at once i realized i was a worthless paradox the day i found out that my life’s most beautiful thing did not even want to be

a part of it

i realized i was a worthless paradox the day i shouted your name into the void and begged you to come home i realized i was a worthless paradox the day you named me the day you assigned me the role of the place taker

the peacemaker

the lover who would never

Untitled

ADRIAN CERONE Contributor

In your hair, pressed curls falling flat against your back, i see a ringing laugh, clear as day in my head In the waving finger wagging at me I see you lunge across a table into a small and narrow mind, the only wrinkle on your supple skin is the crease between your furrowed brows

In your smile I see a missing tooth, your head down in shame at the gap in your toothy grin and your hands clasped, sweaty behind your back

In the strain of your neck

In the vein on your forehead, threatening to burst, I see a little boy who ran from the snow like ashes from a fire

The blessing of knowing each other now, having narrowly escaped hating each other then

Behind a desk and in front of a scuffed locker door

For you, I will beg god, or the universe, for a mighty cauldron of shimmering gold and jewels on the other side of the world I wish for Christmas eve every night And I wish for a million clear skies every morning when the sun rises

So that I can see you as I do in pictures from before I was born and so that I can taste what you had hoped your lives to be

Untitled

FRANÇIS MELANÇON Contributor

As I shed my tears and scream in pain, fighting the voices in my head, they twist and they turn. A voice appears, but not just any voice, a calm and soothing voice. A loud voice, singing a beautiful wave of sound, breaking the shackles that have kept me bound for oh so many years. It calls to me, inviting me to come closer, it wraps around me with a warm embrace. The things I have kept bottled up have been released, giving a euphoric feeling, I laugh and I cry as I embrace this voice, this voice that is oh so warm to the touch. I smile with glee as I experience feelings I haven’t felt for what feels like decades. As I sit and watch the ocean waves, I wonder what comes next, will I finally be free from my pain and sorrow, or will I just be chained up once more, never to feel again?

The Truth About Muses

EDEN DANIEL Contributor

Whenever I’m bequeathed with sleep’s chaperone The mysteries of fate, timing and agency Liminality and meaning All wrap around “You” Like a ribbon What is this strange, unknotted entanglement? Which so often creeps in and out of corners Which so often corners in and out of creeps How many are destined to look out at the world And wonder where “You” went? Oh, the Truth About Muses.. Opportunity crashes into us in mangled colours Flashy shades of red and pink and blue Alien traffic lights That leave us stoned and on guard Pacing towards a mountaintop in the middle of a storm Yet our bones never meet it In the aftershock we train our own eyes In some desperate attempt to derail our derailments In truth, I find myself on fire Burning my eyes with dilapidated ice And looking within a mirror within a mirror at obsession A gardener peels out dandelions with the weeds A gardener peels out weeds with the dandelions “You” is viral once it catches your gaze And hangs in a room like a bat or a guillotine What good is a plan that’s stuck in the throat? Wake up! I urge you! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!

Doodles by

EMMA MAJAURY Creative Writing Editor