Anxious Wings
Anxious Wings
by Jack Gao
All my life I wanted freedom;
to be rid of the orders, rules and schedules.
For as far as I remember, school was my chain, parents, my ball.
I yearned for the freedom to do as I wished, how I wished, and when I wished;
no more orders, rules or schedules.
Undo the ambitions caged, spirit locked, and wings clipped.
Yet,
here I am, standing before the gate,
finally,
with the vast, boundless sky ahead of me, blue with the depth of infinite possibilities;
with the hymns of liberation serenaded by the chorus of adulthood;
with the promise of freedom finally fulfilled.
The future beckons invitingly, but why am I afraid to fly?
Step One
Step One
By Alexandra Tranc
I don’t think homesickness is just missing home.
Homesickness is feeling imprisoned in the most glorified places: places that spoonfeed you unnecessary amounts of hope…for success, growth, prosperity. But, hope can easily mean you’re emptyhanded.
And then you feel guilty for feeling all these feelings and you start believing you’re unthankful and unambitious, but you’re counting your wages and you feel like you’ve got nothing but loneliness and failure and wasted opportunities and you don’t know where to go to no longer feel like that.
But then,
something happens, and you realize homesickness is
just
a feeling:
Like anger and discomfort and excitement and jealousy and exhaustion and stress…
Feelings that are temporal and spin a few lies now and again.
Realizing that is the first step.
I don’t know what’s the next…
Honour
Honour
by Noel Garcia
They stained the streets with their blood
To once again fill the sky with laughter
They walked where there brothers’ fell
To once again see their mothers
For in those fields where they laid,
Their heart’s songs and silent weeps,
Became the battle cry that paved the way.
So that you and me will live in better days
And with gratitude in our hearts
Fill theirs halls
With honour and praise
To always remember
The heroes who marched on and laid their lives that day
Golden Stars
Golden Stars
by Rachel Hannusch
The golden stars dance
across the sky,
and in my arms
the baby cries.
Hold on hope,
do not die,
and in the dark,
the ravens fly.
One
One
by Varun Batta
Just a moment, a sight, a thought
Of just one person, one feeling, one dream
Always leads to a physical reaction
In core muscles throughout my being
Da‐dum, Da‐dum, Da‐dum, Da‐dum
Heart is beating normally, until I view
Just a few letters change beating to racing
When the origin of those letters is my darling, you
Just a wait, a stay, a longing
For just one event, one time, one instant
Always seems to take forever
Time just passing, seeming distant
Tick‐tock, Tick‐tock, Tick‐tock, Tick‐tock
The clock is bidding the moments adieu
Moments last forever, they never fade
When they are the moments I share with my dearest, you
Just a check, a swipe, a peek
To see one source, one view, one block
Always I am sending and receiving
Just a few words, to reply and talk
Da‐ding, Da‐ding, Da‐ding, Da‐ding
Notifications continue to come anew
Only one of which curves my lips
When from the love of my life, you
All too Human
All too Human
by Jacob Kechichian
All too human.
To ache for the past, present, and future.
Cursing time, an illusory tool, for doing what we asked it to do.
Our lives sitting cautiously balanced between irony and paradox.
The human condition, or so it’s called.
A search for purpose,
for which we grasp at our idiosyncracies,
hoping for extraordinary to jump out of mediocrity.
As if our singular plots are to be a grand film for all to see.
How human…
All.
Too.
Human.