LE PAPILLON
COVER ART: BRENNA CHARLES
EDITOR’S NOTE
Dear Reader,
Confining the concept of love to a strict definition has long since proven to be impossible. To encompass an infinite amount of experiences into a sentence or two does no justice to an emotion that defines humanity one that extends beyond words, art, and even comprehension
In truth, love doesn’t need translation to be understood. It exists everywhere: between people, objects, and ideas. Sometimes it shows through compassion and empathy. Sometimes it sleeps in the crevices of grief. Every encounter has a different feeling of love; a “first” love is really just any love Between you and someone else, between you and your craft, and between you and the world The beauty of love lies in its individuality and its immeasurability
Through Edition Three: First Love, our writers and artists were tasked with depicting their conceptions of love. With each page turn, you will find distinctive perspectives from people who have lived entirely different lives from you Or, you might find similarities, images and words combining to form something meaningful something you can understand
you
This edition was made with the hope that each story would reinforce the idea that love persists in any form. To love is to be human, and humanity is unwaverable not through ignorance or indifference but through our ability to value one another
Le Papillon’s Editor-in-Chief, Amanda Chow
WHAT DOES FIRST LOVE MEAN TO YOU?
“I have known tenderness since
For I have seen my And heard my
I have known the air around me
mother’s smile
father’s laugh.”
“Ode to the Infinitesimal”
THE BOND
BETWEEN
ANONYMOUS
symbolize many things in e culture: perseverance, e, friendship, and love.
Alongside love, the two fish also serve as the symbol of yin and yang the balance between two opposing energies.
This artwork depicts a scene from the movie "Everything Everywhere All at Once" in oil pastel. The film uses a multiverse approach to explore a number of philosophical concepts.
In this scene, the main character Evelyn and the tritagonist Waymond who are in an unhealthy marriage in the main universe are in a universe where they hadn’t pursued each other when they were younger. When they see each other again after a long period of time, Waymond says, "Even though you have broken my heart again, in another life, I would have really liked...just doing laundry...and taxes with you. " Given how young they were when they first met and fell in love, this scene is a representation of first love “First love” can refer to the person you date for the first time or to the first experience of pure, sincere love. The fact that Waymond's love for Evelyn has permeated numerous universes is evidence of how deep it is in this scene.
I n A n o t h e r Life..
Louise-Blaise Reniva
Where to
Find Me
ANONYMOUS
As time creeps under my skin,
There you’ll find me in one of the unspeakably beautiful pockets of our world or in a friend’s bathroom, waiting for the red to fade out of my face.
There you’ll find me crouching, tensed, beside lakes of purest blue hands clenched against the soft breeze plastic baby’s breath tucked behind my ear.
There you’ll find me curled up, collapsed the ropes that held together the old bed coming loose or up against the window unmoving for as many hours as I dare able to animate my lifeless face if I am found.
There you’ll find me glitter sticking to my bare feet, honeyed pastry beneath my tongue, curled up next to the one I love and even the haze, the cotton in my head could never compel me to look her dead on.
There you’ll find me with her, always, but ever so far away.
As a child, I read this storybook about the red thread of fate. In Chinese mythology, there’s this invisible red cord that's tied around the fingers of those who are destined to meet. The person you ' re connected to is supposed to be your " one true love "
This piece is representative of first love, as even though the red thread is wrapping around their hands and grazing their fingers, they are not tied together They are not each other’s true loves, as first loves hardly ever are Nonetheless, there's still a small heart in the centre, representing the love they have for each other even though it's not the perfect, “true love”, there is still love between them.
ANONYMOUS
TiedTogether
“ ”
My first love is nature. When I immerse myself in nature, whether it be a forest or a beach, I immediately feel relaxed and isolated from the worries of the world. I have adored nature throughout my youth and will continue to for years to come.
NATURE IN THE ABYSS
CHELSEA JENKINS
LASTDance
ANONYMOUS
Count the stars in your eyes, tracing constellations like they’re mine.
A reverence so sweet, yet a line is drawn deep into the sand, invisible barrier driving me away. My heart cannot resist and yet I still want, a pull between our very cores, two quiet souls.
In this night, I try to catch my breath, but every curve of your lips is my undoing, a hummingbird fluttering in the cage of my ribs.
Burning sunset casts a halo over your frame, crystal glass rigid under the soles of my feet.
So here is our final life; The conclusion to this universe. Gather the fleeting glances and hold your yearning close. Our last dance and only I can hear the music.
This piece is meant to capture the feelings and thoughts of uncertainty that come with navigating your first romantic experiences and the new sides of yourself that begin to unveil.
Lucy Szerminski
True North, I True Love
have now devoted myself to the cause
Laced up, trussed up, dressed to the nines.
I’m not allowed to form the words You’ll have to read between the lines.
What I can tell you is this, so listen: You are written all over my earnest face Your signature is in my scars and freckles In my best memories, you take pride of place
When I say your name, even now, in remission It rolls off my tongue, a lilting song. I speak it with reverence, each syllable precious I’ve known you so briefly, but loved you so long.
There’s something else, a shadow, a stalker A cameraman tracking my waking mind. Whenever you render me grinning and foolish
His lens is there to wink back in kind.
As well, I’ve learned why love is blind
The stars in my eyes burn my pupils to dust
My vision tunnels, my heart nearly stops
My compass points to you, and in it I must trust
LOVE
OF HUNTER PILON
Drawing
O d e t o t h e Infinite
To tell you what I adore would be to give name to each atom; to christen every gust of wind and all the stars beyond Declaration of my first love would not discredit all that has come after, but how could I recall the very moment I opened my eyes?
I have known tenderness since I have known the air around me
For I have seen my mother’s smile and heard my father’s laugh
For I have visited the ocean Her eminence, her sovereign Pebble-speckled shores and gulls atop her waves Ardent swells praising new life in tidepools She tells me of the unfathomable
For I have been graced with the best company Nestled around campfires, bathed in the ardour of kindling Swathed in spirited laughter and open-hearted songs I have driven with a kindred soul across country roads, the setting sun adorning his cheek with gold
For I found my place in this world; I dance under summer showers, climb trees sewn with moss, and watch dawn break as old stories meet young ears
I bore witness to utter bitterness and found my care to persist through all
I rose to adore the day-to-day and the once-in-a-lifetime just the same
And if you have the time, if you have the tolerance for all the good that perseveres, let us name the atoms
For I love nothing more than I love the first, the last, and the in-between
I love nothing more than I love everything
simal
Nathan Kup
Pomegranates have a strong association with Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love.
The half-eaten and rotting pomegranate heart represents heartbreak: when separating from a lover, they metaphorically take a piece of you with them. The seeds left behind inside the pomegranate represent the opportunity to grow into a better person.
SOPHIE BRUTON
Eaten Half
my heart is
not a Kay Won perennial
she never said “i love you, ” but you thought you heard it in the furled spaces of her silence.
you would talk between cracks in the halls, and as she listened, she spoke a thousand words that settled on the blossoms in your rib cage.
when the ice ebbed under blue skies, you saw her smile against the cold blush of the flower buds. your eyes followed her halo.
you were young, fresh, blind, running through noon sunshine and decade-old dandelion fields, burning up, though you felt like a phoenix.
but then the world turns, and you ’ re not twelve anymore, are you?
you ’ re eons, eons older, and your calloused hands feel pink petals turn to snow
you hold your heart, wilting and torn, too small in your palms and watch its arteries weep crimson red just as it blooms
The place I met my forever friend.
Raina Eshal
QUEEN B.
Emily Blair
First
Love
I don't know when it happened, and hell if I know why
But it hit me like a train, feelings I couldn't deny
Loving her is like gaining consciousness for the first time
A match made in heaven something utterly divine
From the very beginning, thoughts of her filled my mind
She made a home out of my heart irreversibly entwined
I can see her everywhere, without even trying
If I were to say she doesn't mean the world to me, I would be lying
I see her in couples holding hands, and small intimacies
In my favourite songs, books, and moments I wish to freeze
The birds chirping in the gentle morning air, the warm sun against my face
I see her in the flowers, and in the way the wind and trees embrace
Where she's absent is cold and never fails to make my heart break
The vacancy is painful how much of this can the world take?
Those she leaves behind gone but never forgotten
Despite the trail of broken hearts, my first love is far from rotten
My heart is in her hand, and in her other is a knife
Happily at her mercy, permanently in love for my first love is life
My Different Loves
ANONYMOUS
I’ve had many different loves
Not all can be described the same way.
My first love was a child’s love
It was all soft words and sweet smells
Flowers in your hair and your smile on my mind for hours.
My second love was a teenage dream
Unsure yet longing gazes across rooms
Joking and flirting blurring together; crossing lines
A spark, palm sweat, teasing kind of love.
My third love was two parting ships
Watching you pass me by as I leave you behind
Your wake a reminder of you, even though you ’ re out of sight
I took you for granted as much as you didn’t treat me right
Now I feel you in two places: an emptiness on my shoulders and a constant weight in my heart.
Beyond The
Anniya Earle
where Neytiri meets Jake, the film’s main character, for the first time. Many fans believe that Jake was Neytiri’s first love, and she ends up choosing him over the man she was initially being forced to marry
Someday,
Amanda Chow
Not Now
And you will remember his name
Like how you remember the sun on your face,
Tickling warmth and piano music
In this sliver of light
Your hands tremble to hold
And catch the falling birds
Learning to fly from the nest
A leap of faith to be
The only poet in this room
Of unloved children
Though you too have been forgotten
Left to feel the freezing wind
And the unknown journey to the ground
But do you catch the draft?
Here, you remember his smile
Awkwardly brimming with innocence
Like how a child learns to be loved
And somehow, the windows are painting a kaleidoscope
Of stained glass on your skin
And here, you remember the melody
Of laughter and a heartbeat so quick, It becomes nauseating
And here, too late, you remember
But do you reach the sky?
Flower Language
Sophie Bruton
Tell us about
“First love isn’t always a lover, sometimes it shows up as the cool wind, One that turns your nose red as you wait for the bus. Sometimes it’s the smell of your mom ’ s perfume, years after you moved out Sometimes it comes as the perfect girl, Who knows all your secrets. Sometimes it’s you two fading away. Sometimes first love can be loud and ugly, like a fight with your parents Or quiet like seeing an old friend whose name you recall but don’t know anymore. ”
“Like a devotee and god.”
“Confusing, dramatic, and the happiest I’ve ever been She completes me, and I love her more than I thought was possible She started as my best friend and still is to this day. She’s my soulmate ”
“Kind, sweet, and sumptuous.”
“We never were together, but she was my best friend. We were inseparable We were tweens and neither out yet, so we clearly didn't recognize our feelings were probably beyond friendship. She was so firey, passionate, and fun I laughed so much with her Miss her to this day, even just as a friend ”
your first love.
“My first love was my cat. Love isn't always romantic sometimes love is drinking a cup of tea with a little ball of fur curled up beside you, choosing to stay with you ”
“I'm an international student studying at a college within the area, and that's where I first met my first love. I liked him because of how he looked at first, and I only saw him as someone I admired and nothing more Then we started taking the same bus rides home together Every day for an hour on the bus, I got to know him more and more: his ideals, beliefs, dreams, and family. He was the serious type, opposite from my personality, but I enjoyed his company regardless.”
“Calm and reckless She taught me patience, consideration, and true strife ”
“It was beautiful and so sweet until he broke my heart. He did me wrong, but I still miss the sweet moments. That’s how love is. So supreme that it overpowers your hate ”
T h e T e a m
Executives
Editor-In-Chief Amanda Chow
Head Of Design Veanna Felisco
Managing Editor Madeline Knapp
Head of Public Relations Alexandra Murray
Editorial Team Leader Lucy Szerminski
Sponsorship Manager Chelsea Jenkins
Staff Facilitator Leo Lottering
Teams
Editorial Team
Kay Won
Darcy Scott
Estelle Hathaway
Sam Wilson
Tiffany Parker
Design Team
Louise-Blaise Reniva
Nathan Kup
Sophie Bruton
Matthew Lynn
To our artists and writers: thank you for sharing your creativity and passion with us. Your works inspire numerous others and we hope you continue to be bright and imaginative.
To our readers: your support is truly appreciated. We hope that each edition is one you look forward to and one that you can resonate with
To Mr Lottering: thank you for sacrificing your time and effort to help bring our vision to life Your guidance and belief in our capabilities has shaped us to become better people, and we hope Le Papillon means just as much to you as it means to us.
As founding members of Le Papillon who are now graduating, this edition represents the culmination of the hopes and dreams we started with.
Thank you for reading Edition Three: First Love.
Sincerely,
Amanda Chow, Madeline Knapp, Alexandra Murray, Lucy Szerminski, and Veanna Felisco
PAPILLON MAGAZINE Edition 3: First Love