PRESENCE

Anthony Lê

presence

by Anthony Lê

CREDITS:

Photographer: Anthony Lê Poet: Maximus Allen Models: • Maximus Allen • Samantha Kwan • Aria Upton

SPECIAL THANKS TO:

to everyone who helped bring this to life

Desiderium

desiderium

[des•i•de•ri•um] noun an ardent desire or longing especially: a feeling of loss or grief for something lost

yellow lights i wish my life had more those yellow lights like the ones you see on city streets forever stuck between fluorescent reds and greens but for me, there is no slow down no warning signs no gentle reminder only stop and go i either press down on the pedal or i slam on the brakes

Longing Sometimes I laugh At my younger self At the girl I used to want to be

Sometimes I cry For my older self For the woman I have not yet become

Ambedo

ambedo

[am•be•do] noun a kind of melancholic trance in which you become completely absorbed in vivid sensory details, i.e. raindrops skittering down a window, which leads to a dawning awareness of the haunting fragility of life

Streets Cracked pavement Sunken asphalt Piss-soaked sidewalks

And broken shards You trashed my soul Like they did these streets

CLOSED 2400 miles of road It all leads to this Just past those metal barrricades Used to be life Strangers stomped across those wooden planks

withdrawals i’ll never forget that night when you trusted me with a piece of yourself those memories deposited in the back of your brain your darkest secrets the highs and lows, the times of excess, the weeks where you just barely scraped by i stood there, waiting and told you what you wanted to hear spat the words out in shades of green like crisp paper bills, “Money fixes everything” if I hadn’t ended it, we would have stayed there forever i give and you take

Melancholy

melancholy

[mel•an•chol•y] noun a feeling of pensive sadness, typically with no obvious cause

alone i hate feeling this way stark-naked and stranded against a starless sky i bathe myself in the dying light the only way i can see through the shadows and make it through the night

Thought When a new idea flickers, Scratch at the surface, go under the glass, Make sure it stays incandescent, Warped and heated, barely contained

up there there are no stars no gods just planes flying by

i want to believe

Loneliness Is Rooted In My Skin, Sprawled Underneath My Earth

Apolytus

Racing Come here, help me Shake off my old self Use your mouth To open my mind Use your hands To free my body Use your heart To alter my soul

apolytus

[a•pol•y•tus] noun the moment you realize you are changing as a person, finally outgrowing your old problems like a reptile shedding its skin

At Rest She stands over the city 14 stories up Open hands Ring-bearing fingers A sigh of relief After all these years, She’s finally found it Comfort in the danger zones

What did that feel like?

Sea-salt winds, shrieking laughter All I see now are

Twisted metal contraptions Creaking with the memories of Some feeling I cannot descibe

Dangle I dangle over the bleak shadows Outstretch my limbs to the amber light Feel the sensation as it floods my body Burns through the blood and bone Shines through the threaded fabric I bask in the afterglow Before I hit the rocks

I know you can be so dangerous Pressed against my lips But I still want to breathe in, invite you Let you flow freely about my veins When I exhale I want to be different Feel the buzzing in my skin, the burning in my throat, Set me on fire Show me what’s next

If no one else is out there, No higher being to give us meaning, We must search for it ourselves In the chaos of our preoccupations Our surroundings can give us purpose In those quiet moments, those lonely nights, Beauty is in the small things Revel in the silence, bathe in the glory of free will, We are the dictators of our own lives

P R E S E N C E