WAT is Zine? Issue 8: Dreams

ISSUE 8 — Dreams Editor-in-Chief Matt Comeau

TEAM LEADS

Submissions/Editing Lily Roth Layout Design Clara Xi Art Diana Tran Marketing Michelle Xie

FEATURED CONTRIBUTORS Anonymous Baz Kanold Cassie Lim I.S.B. Jacqueline Meldrum Jeanne Xu

Cover art Clara Xi

@watiszine | watiszine@gmail.com

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Dreams was originally suggested as a theme for this Fall with the optimistic mindset that things would return to normal. It stemmed from an interest in hearing what people’s aspirations were, their goals, and what they wanted to do coming out of an international lockdown and pandemic. Clearly, this wasn’t the case. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t able to work towards a future we want or continue to strive to what we wish to achieve.

Fall semester is a bunch of firsts for many, seconds for some, and a great number of endings for a few. It is daunting to have to change the entire way you’re used to doing things, whether that’s coming to university for the first time, or moving away from learning in person completely. Our team has spent the last 4-6 months learning how to operate this completely online. It’s not always perfect, or efficient, or even polished.

But then, is anything ever exactly what we want it to be?

With this in mind, I present to you our latest issue. Just like this term, we have new folks, old ones, and some that are just trying to figure things out; and that’s okay. We hope you enjoy these pieces, from contributors old and new. We have some really neat issues planned for Fall and Winter, and I sincerely hope this serves as an introduction for more to come.

While it seems like we won’t be back around Waterloo anytime soon, my team and I are always around online. Feel free to shoot us a message if you’re ever interested!

Take it easy and see you next month :).

Kind Regards, Matt Comeau Editor-in-Chief

WAT is Zine?

TABLE OF CONTENTS 4 ……..……………………………………………………………. dreaming / nightmare 5 …..……………………………………………………………………………………... Closure 6 ..………………………………………………………………………... waking // missing 7 ..………………………………………………………………………………………... Dreams 8 ..…………………………………………………………………………………….. [untitled] 10 ..…………………………………………………………………………………. Two Nights

dreaming / nightmare “We can’t tell reality from dreams until we wake up.”

Anonymous

Closure

Last night I had a dream I think he and I must’ve been Inside a basement at a house party And he was sitting On a dark brown couch Lit softly In a low hanging Dark yellow light And I gave him a hug And we laughed about something I couldn’t quite comprehend And then I hugged him again And the love between the two of us Felt so real And the hole he left inside of me Didn’t exist anymore And I woke up With the ghost of his embrace Still lingering in my senses Because both of us were happy And healthy And together

I.S.B

waking // missing Jacqueline Meldrum

I miss you every night when you fall asleep, my dear.

It is a sweet and dreadful thing.

My dreams are full of you: Full of Holding your body close to mine under blankets like a wood ďŹ re, Your facial features becoming a shining beacon of comfort in a pitch black room, The moon glowing against your skin.

StillThe memory of you fades and I Drift into uneasier sleep.

When I wake I move like water, soft and malleable for you.

I cannot shape myself into anything but yours, Cannot rest soundly without you, Cannot keep my heart inside my chest because It runs back into your arms at every chance, My love.

I wish you would come home so it could stop running so far.

I miss you every morning when I wake up, my dear.

It is a sweet but diďŹƒcult thing.

My dreams are full to bursting, miniature worlds all made up of you, All bubbling over until they pop against the edges of the daylight.

Leaving me alone in empty sheets.

I can take comfort knowing that someday the daylight will only bring me closer to you lying beside me.

That thought is much easier to bear.

Dream by Baz Kanold

August 2020 | Digital Painting

Cassie Lim

Two Nights Jeanne Xu

Auntie pours me a cup of tea. Her son, who is around six years old, plays on her lap. He’s wearing red, I think. A red T-shirt, or a cheongsam, or maybe both: I can’t tell when it switches, or why. All I know is that we’re sitting around a small round table—empty, save for the plate of thumbprint cookies in the centre.

She puts the teapot down on the table and slides the cup of tea towards me.

“Here, this is for you,” she says.

“Thank you,” I say, taking the cup into my hands. I look around the kitchen, and the colour brown flashes. When I drink, something settles in my head, a thought that grows and grows until it takes up the entire dining space.

I’ve been here before.

It was last night, wasn’t it? I’d been in the basement back then, and there were cockroaches teeming about. The colour brown, crawling within a deep black darkness only illuminated by the glow of a white light dripping down the staircase. An acquaintance, a friend of my father’s, was standing on the top of that staircase. Yes, I think, it was him, for sure.

He is not here today. Auntie leans forward on the table and asks me about school. Without any prompting, my mouth opens and I talk—still sitting in the upstairs kitchen, my mind wandering outside.

“School’s been fine,” I say, while I admire the teal, glass-like structure of the pagoda. An outsider looking in. It looks the same as yesterday.

“It hasn’t really gotten busy yet,” I continue, as I inspect the two reeds of bamboo on each side of the building. There is a pond full of crystal-clear water in the front of the lawn. If I squint hard enough, will there be any koi fish swimming?

“That’s good,” Auntie says, and I begin to wonder if she’s related to the uncle I saw yesterday, who ordered me to get rid of the bugs downstairs. Or if she was even someone I knew or not. Or if I’ll be here tomorrow, too, even though I’ve never been to a place more than twice.

But either way, she reaches back for the teapot, almost mechanically, as if there was nothing better to do. And either way, I finish my tea, all the way to the last drop.

contributors Baz Kanold | @artbybaz

Baz Kanold was born in Waterloo, Ontario. After getting an advertising degree from Sheridan College, they are now pursuing their degree in Fine Arts from UW. Their work generally explores the uidity of gender and is a celebration of the queer identity.

Cassie Lim | @cassietheartsyfart2, @cassiethecoolio

Cassie Lim is a ďŹ rst year biology student at the University of Waterloo. With her equal passion for artistic pursuit, she aspires to present various disciplines of science using a visual platform in an attempt to accentuate the beauty and mystery that underlie natural phenomena in her academic and future endeavours.

I.S.B

I.S.B is an undergraduate student at UW who aspires to publish a poetry novel by the time they graduate. Please keep a lookout for their novel when it gets released.

Jacqueline Meldrum | @redvelvetcreep

Jacqueline is in her 1A term of Honours Arts for Theatre and Performance, and is also a member of the marketing team here at WAT Is Zine?! She loves cooking, embroidering, performing music, and writing sappy love poems in her spare time.

Jeanne Xu | @xu.jeanne

4th year undergrad, studying accounting (AFM). Loves writing & music (and would love to learn how to draw). Wants to create works one day that makes people feel things.

Issue 8 September 2020