iSSUE II : Themeless

i S S U E II

T H E M E L E S S

iSSUE II is an exploration of literary and visual art sans the restrictions of a theme. With this issue, we invited contributors to send in highly creative artwork and literary pieces. From the pool of amazing submissions, our editors were then able to sculpt a narrative: one that details the push and pull of loving and loss.

Like always, we are incredibly proud of and thankful for everyone who submitted We hope to see more of your work in the upcoming 2023-24 semesterly issues!

Psst...Are

Charlotte Park

Psst..

o m y s i s t e r s

tTo My Sisters (A Soft Embrace)

3-D Visual made with upcycled clothing, embroidery thread, and found objects on fabric and wool batting

Charlotte Park

d a h l i a

you nod at me from across the room where dust grounds itself in the soles of shoes. i look down at my crooked fingers and the chip in my boot which presses the shape of a dahlia into the smalls of my heel nobody in this wicked place needs to know that you take me from socal to the moon, back to yichun and down to the deep sea, dimples carving fish hooks underneath the apple of your cheeks while a slick-y blue jazz careens and crashes in the back

slow dancing is too slow for me this time of year, none of the songs in my playlists are sad enough for this none of the soul, none of the R&B. displacing my mass on this bed, you steal my grandmother’s quilt right from underneath me. when i reach over to take them back, you aren’t even there. you ’ re like lightweight sleepwalking, lucid and recurring, always a frame too fast for my hands to find no matter which corner of the wall i try to grapple onto. i reach across the sheets and suddenly you ’ re up too far for my fingers to walk to and hunched over on the side with the lamplight sinking into your skin. i ask you to stay because i’m not even fully awake and in this dream you ’ re already saying goodbye

the you here, on this green duvet, does stay because you ’ re like a good tune that just sticks, a la dee da like any other la dee da but with a little more bass

Catherine Xue

d a h l i a

In Memory Of Painting

Clair Tian

Ecstasy

Brielle Janae Stafford

Ecstasy

Step out

Where tile meets the warm stone pavement of the sidewalk

School’s out

My heart satisfied

A smile on my face, so real that I can’t stop it

Clear skies as far as the eye can see

My soul soaring among the clouds

I’m so high on life

Happiness fills me like a pitcher spilling water

I want to scream in joy

Laugh just because

Walk across the lot

Bumper to bumper, tailgating

Cars of all sizes

Swearing all over the place

Like traffic cones they warn me not to step there

Stay away, they roar

Engines gun and I roll my blue eyes

Hop the curb and walk, swinging my keys like I own the place

Gaining all the confidence

Turning heads left to right

Ha. Yeah right, I’m not that good lol

I’m just playing with you

Fake it till you make it

And I think I made it

Never felt this good before

I feel so alive, I feel unstoppable

Sun warming my face

It’s rays giving me the hug of a lifetime

Feels like summer with only 70 degrees

Melting away my anxiety and all the other stupid things I can’t seem to stop worrying about

Carefree, daring, free

I could fall and i could fly

I could do nothing and still have the time of my life

Left to right

Moving my feet across the painted white and yellow lines

Hit me, I challenge them

The breeze combing through my thick curls

Keeping me from getting too hot

I sigh contentedly

Approach, unlock, and jump in Windows down

Sunroof open

Back out

Volume up high

I’ve got my sunglasses on feeling like a gangster

Putting on one of my many good sides

Cruising through the church parking lot

Nothing on my mind besides the sun, clear sky, and the good vibes flowing through my blood

They stop and stare

Idrc

I’m used to it

And I do it anyway

Whoops xD

The beat drops and I jump

Landing on the beat, feeding my exhilaration

Faces in my mirror

People everywhere

But I don’t care

Today it’s all about me

“We just tryna catch a good time”

NM

And there’s “No Way” I’m quitting now

Bazzi

Racing

From red to green

Pedal to the floor

Fly forward

I’m a good and safe driver, I swear

But right now I’m flying

My thoughts elsewhere

Sun on my face

Wind in my hair

I’m free, having way too much fun

Guess I’m not coming down anytime soon

Rollerblades

Don’t Stop the Car

Lost

Blake rose

Midnight City

Not afraid at all

Feel my love

MASOCHIST

Thomas Day

Out of my league

Heat Waves

Glass Animals

Pick the right playlist

And we ’ re vibing

Wind ripping through both open windows

Feeling cool even though in reality I know it’s not

I feel so good, it seems too good to be true

Can’t wipe the stupid smile off my face

I’m addicted to it

The rush of adrenaline, feeling so happy for no reason

Ecstatic

Here’s a hint

When the weather’s nice and I find a window

I go from a one to a ten

Off the rails

One second I’m half dead

Bored and tired

Going through the motions

And the next, I’m alive

Can’t wait for 7th to pass along

Wanting to ditch

The angel inside hid her wings and put on horns

The little rebel setting my soul on fire

Can’t wait, can’t wait, can’t wait

Minutes tick by

10, 9, 8, 7

The sun passing through the doorway pulls me by my hands and feet

6, 5, 4

Heart leaps, free of bounds

Emotions erupting inside of me

My spine bending over backwards

Restless realignment

A habit

And in answer to someone, it might be bad

But who knows >:)

3, 2

Get out a minute early

Free of the dimness, I fall into the light

It’s warm hands wrap around me

Surrounded by blue sky

Stuttering over my words and tripping over air

And here I am, making my way back

Always there

Like Pine Lake’s cold water rushing over you as you dive in,

It’s shocking and refreshing all at once

Satisfying my thirst

Coating my soul with warmth

Starting from my core and spreads to the rest of me

I welcome it

I want to scream in joy

Laugh just because

I know why and I love it

Never felt this good before

I feel so alive

The beat dropping, matching the unreasonable happiness going on inside of me

I’d rather be lost

Heart stops

And there I go again

With blue eyes and dark brown hair

I fall

I love this feeling.

So familiar but can’t quite grasp the memory

Close my eyes and inhale

Wishing that time would stop

Wanting to live in this moment forever

The breeze combing through my hair

Hand hanging out the window

Resting on the warm black exterior of my ride

Letting my engine roar as the light changes

Got my shades on

A smile so big, I’m afraid it’ll break my face

I’m happy

And I don’t need a reason

My light shining so bright, I’m glowing

I’ve never felt so new, so good

Exhilarated and high on life

No sugar needed

It’s pure ecstasy

4beautiesofAI

the man who was afraid of

the world

there once was a man who was afraid of the world. more specifically, the Modern world. the one with Wheels Roads under them

Cars on top of them. he was so afraid, so afraid of the world, that he never tried to Experience it. never left his house -

the two-story brick building he’d survived in since Childhood

he didn’t even open the door he saw what happened on tv and that was enough. the accidents, all the Accidents that came with the world. they can’t be prevented, they say but

if she hadn’t been driving there that day that second

if he hadn’t run that particular red if they both hadn’t been in their cars at all couldn’t it have been Prevented? so he stays inside

Preventing

all that he doesn’t know will happen. And then it does.

there once was a man who was afraid of the world. that was then - Now the man is no more

I hear it each second is eternity yet weeks pass by in the blink of an eye. tick

I want to be an adult I want to be free tick tick

now time is going too fast please slow down slow down slow down

I'm leaving soon I'll be an adult soon

I'll never be a kid again slow down slow down but I can't wait for June June please come quick tick tick tick tick

Brinda Moudgalya

dog days

today i found out why i hate the summer: as soon as the heat runs down the hills into our towns and city centers, as soon as the warm fronts come in, the people become restless a frozen block suddenly starts vibrating from within, each particle loosening, a little less cohesive than the last.

as soon as mid june rolls in, the people diffuse like glitter blown out the curve of somebody’s palm my prettiest friends start pooling away, each little particle falling free from winter’s bound, and here i am in the middle, held in place as the rest go away

they’ll fly out early july, ready to be somebody’s girlfriend, ready to burn the summer away in somebody’s arms in some loving institution crunching little letters and numbers in their brains as they hold a sweaty boy’s hand.

Catherine Xue

Quietude Erika Lee

Painting

Sagiri

Cailin Surtihadi Digital art

Surrounding Us

Esther Fang

Painting

Requiem of the Naïve Child

Children light something in me

And they sizzle that same thing out simultaneously

They dance and swing and scream

They cheer and play and balance on imaginary beams

I sit on a bench

I sit at a desk

I sit on the couch

And then I lay down for bed

Til I wake up to do it over again

And when I watch these little people color with a pen

I can't help but remember back then

And see my ghost in them

This extinguishing spark of theirs and mine

It's like a beautiful bouquet broken by time

When I was young, my bud was colorful too

My leaves were soft and my soil fresh and the sky blue

I had that light in my eyes once too

Now I'm nothing but what the shadow overthrew

I am leaves evolved with spikes

I am dull and wilted and faded to black

The sky is polluted and my soil is in the same lack

My bud never even seemed to bloom

It died before it left the cocoon

So when I see kids being kids

I get a gloomy sense of foreboding under my lids

Because I know their light will go out in a decade

Just as mine eroded and decayed into a charade

I get lost in my confusion with humanity

For why does it seem for all the time we spend under the sun

We are most alive

Before our lives have really even begun?

By Red

Midnight Luminary

Yiran Wang Digital art

Silent Fire

Esther Fang

Visual Art

Social Starvation

I am begging for some fruit

Please, I'm so hungry

The sweet juice of words

The soft skin of sound

The feeling of my teeth on my lips

Dancing in my mouth to speak

Starved of this, My life feels meaningless

I am craving the products of own throat

Starved of my own voice

Of socialization

Of the encouraging shadow of a tree

A bubble that enables me

To feel comfortable enough to speak

I am desperate for someone who can give me this

I need someone to lend me my voice

Hand me back my mouth

Rip the stitches of the Frankenstein seams

That clamp my lips shut

And lock my words to the confines of my inner world

Free me from my prison shell

Peel my petals down so I can breathe

I am suffocating in my own bud

Please, I am starving for social fruit

By Red

Fight or Flight

Yifan Zhang

Painting

KilaueaVolcano

Kilauea Volcano

Maia Taylor

Photograph

Running In Reverse

The farther I get from you

The more detail I can see of you

You defy physics

Blind I was before

Yet now I see you more clearly

I am fleeing in reverse

My steps fall backward

Even as I urge them forward

I run away

And for a while I thought it was working

But my body is taking me back

Fight flight freeze

But I can't win a battle against you

And my flight only brings me closer to you

And how can I possibly hide from you?

Every time I think I'm free

You return right there in front of me

To remind me that you own me

My mind is your home

The world around me is your own

I've got nowhere left to roam

Time itself bends to your will

The laws of nature abide by your ab*se

And the organs in my skull

Let you handpick what fills them full

I am too empty yet I am too full

A hollow sphere drowned by the ocean

You emptied my sacred bubble

Stole my breath and replaced it with your own

CPR for the suffocation you caused

Resuscitating me so you can say I am yours

By Red

Your property, your loan

And then left me here to sink

Because someone like you can make air capsize

The density of your generously given oppression weight enough

I was starving so you gave me a tsunami to drink

But now I see your gifts were thievery in return for poison

You said I belonged to you

But someone as kind as I

Never belonged with someone like you

growing pains

doused in camellia water that pools us in with her many sons, we emerge from the lakes of childhood. the lotus roots grasp at our skin & plait wreaths in our hair (whispering hushed goodbyes). rice water sloshes

at the hides of our ankles,

each grain of wheaty white sweating into our arms & dripping down to our feet (a silent prayer kissed into our heels).

baptization has never known itself like your fingers ticking time off into my skin & my breath weighing

down on the crooks of your legs as our bodies tear themselves apart.

my legs grow unruly, sugarcane stilting my bones, & your arms no longer have to reach much farther to

get to me. not like how it was when the length of the dinner table was our whole world, & the walls of

this house, our emperor ’ s palace

Catherine Xue

Frenzied Flame

Maia Taylor

Visual Art

Reflectio Reflection

Esther Fang 3-D Visual

the end of an era

the door closes so soon just yesterday I was walking through the gates the castle gates that once upon a time were so big. so beautiful. just an hour ago there I was, finding new rooms, opening new doors just a second ago I was walking through it, jubilant, determined, and now there is nothing. nothing stirs in me. nothing, as I walk past through the castle gates over and over

because this castle is no longer a castle, it is just a building and it is crumbling. the doors I opened remain open, the things I saw and did remain etched in me I have learned, learned so much, but the learning hasn't been enough to confine me.

unconfinable.

I think that is a good thing. I hope that is a good thing

I know it is a thing that makes me sad to think this castle, my castle, is mine no longer. because I threw open the doors, took a breath, and realized how beautiful it all is .

realized how beautiful I could make my life if I just shut the gates. close the doors. close myself to open myself. an end to create a beginning. I hope it is a good beginning

Brinda Moudgalya

The Prince of Storm

Agatha Barber

Visual Art

Show Your Voice

T was a robber

Stealing the voice of others

Who i was, i forgot her

i dabbed and brushed makeup over my entire being

Contouring and covering until i became more agreeing

Concealed all my feelings

i was always scheming

To make someone love me

i had to deceive

A Self-obsessed, depressed, nobody

Trapped in conformity, walking in a line, not free

Looking in the mirror was like metal scraping the street

Burning in the hot sun, not able to escape the heat

In every song i was playing the wrong chord

At every fork in the road i took the wrong turn

Could everyone tell i was just an imposter?

The person deep down i just tossed her

i was living life clandestine

Solemn and solitary, i was destined

My room an ocean

My eyes setting the sea in motion

i was drowning, in a vast water

The waves grew taller

Because i still wasn't enough

Could they see my bluff?

When i made a mistake

i fell from grace

Mistakes can’t be erased

Good girl, gone bad

Look at her, so sad

Those once my friends

Became foes

i yearned to make amends, but they were plotting my end

Crestfallen in my solitude

Windows tinted blue

Like the ocean that was my room

The waves wrenching me under

In the midst of a storm, lighting and thunder

i wallowed in it, for a bit

For who am i, if not part of society’s supply

i didn’t like who i was

Conforming just because

Thus I realized,

I can become uncivilized

Let them listen to my battle cry

Because I can make the choice to show my voice

I don’t have to march in this parade

I can abandon old friends at the masquerade

Look at me, I'm not afraid

I'll quit the circus, find my purpose

I don't have to hide in my room, i can wipe off the makeup

My voice can rise with a boom, I will wake up

Return what I stole, and take back control

I am David in Goliath, I will incite a riot

And by the grace of God, I will no longer be quiet

I can make the choice to show my voice

And in the end the world will rejoice

Helen Daw

Out of the Blue Painting

Erika Lee

iSSUE II Contributors

Helen Daw

Yifan Zhang

Catherine Xue

Charlotte Park

Cailin Surtihadi

Agatha Barber

Brielle Janae Stafford

Brinda Moudgalya

Sunny Cong

Yiran Wang

Esther Fang

Clair Tian

Erika Lee

Maia Taylor

Red

Ezhil Karthikeyan

NOT AN iSSUE Board

Emma Lu Catherine Xue

Co-president, Co-editor in chief

Co-president, Co-editor in chief

Director of Communications

Secretary

NOT AN iSSUE Members

Sneha M.

Nina Shetty

Erika Lee Nitya Masina

Maia Taylor Claire Yang