WAT is Zine? Issue 3: Winter

ISSUE 3 — Winter Editor-in-Chief Matt Comeau

TEAM LEADS

Submissions/Editing Lily Roth Layout Design Clara Xi Art Diana Tran, Nevedha Ravi Marketing Diya Dadlani, Grace Benjaminsen Treasurer Irsah Choudhury Secretary Jasmeet Chahal

FEATURED CONTRIBUTORS Absalom Abalone Clara Xi Gloria Cheung Grace Benjaminsen Jessen Liang JVCPhoto Lily Kramer Roth

Cover art Diana Tran @watiszine | watiszine@gmail.com 2

Letter From the Editor As some of you may know, December’s issue of WAT is Zine? rounds off our first term. I’d like to have had the time to think of something poignant, yet witty to say as some sort of conclusion; to have a modicum of an ending to this term. But the truth is, this isn’t really the end. As cliché as it may sound, it is only the beginning.

This whole project started sometime in August. I had been working with another online zine called Yer Scene (if you dig DIY music you should check them out) for the past few months, and really wanted to do something like it on campus. I felt like there was a niche for the content we showcase around here, but I didn’t expect it to have the success that it has had.

Suffice to say, it feels like we are pivoting ourselves to achieve some great things next semester. When I started this project in what seems like forever ago, I outlined three goals: we’re going to put three issues out, we’re going create a structure that works, and we’re going to build readership. With the issue that you have in your hands, I’m confident in saying that we’ve achieved all three. We are working on hosting some on-campus events in the New Year, getting more distribution, and advertising in classes to get more people involved.

This semester has been a wild ride, I’ve made friends through this venture; people I look up to, and that inspire me to keep this going. And I find it’s that connection that really resonates with me regarding this theme. Winter is a season, but it’s also a feeling. A sense of finality, and a great way to end the year, with friends, family, and an outlook for the future.

Matt Comeau 3

@JVCPhoto

Table of contents 05 ⸻ An Atheist at Christmas 06 ⸻ Amaryllis 08 ⸻ A Car Stuck in Traffic on a December Evening in 2019 11 ⸻ Winter Emotion 17 ⸻ Christmas Song 18 ⸻ After the ice storm in February

Credits 03 ⸻ Background image by Openclipart on Publicdomainvectors 05 ⸻ Background image by Alora Griffiths on Unsplash 09 ⸻ Image by Openclipart on Publicdomainvectors

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I. Bulb cocooning. in the winter it sleeps awaiting the expulsion of colour into the world. the earth churns out a sprout and, later, the bees will breathe unto them a soul.

Amaryllis ⸻

Lily Kramer Roth

II. Stalk in a pot by the window it sits on a stack of books, green neck moving heavenward while the record hums: our love is like the flowers the room is cold but its green head tilts to the sun ready to burst forth ruby red. the rain and the sea and the hours how long till the musical cacophony ends? how long till the graceful transformation begins?

III. In Bloom hearing the birds muffled singing from outside the sun rises, blinds drawing light lines over the room. red velveteen petals open to delicate insides. crimson stars in the bleakness of late winter. for one moment of brilliance you guide me, striving through the window signaling the coming spring before being beheaded—

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Gloria Cheung 7

A CAR

STUCK IN TRAFFIC ON A DECEMBER EVENING IN 2019

Waiting waiting waiting. I can't believe this. I just want to go home. Oh, I'm so tired. So so so so so tired, but I absolutely can't fall asleep at the wheel. Oh, why did this have to happen? I just want to go home already, for God's sake. Look at how it is outside—look at the perfect pure pitch black sky.

The snow's falling and I have to keep my windshield wipers on. The rubber blades squawk hideously across the glass, and I make a mental note to myself to replace the blades this weekend: a burden of a task that's been hanging over my head for the past four months, which I'm sure I'll forget about again as soon as I get home. It's only 8:47 PM but man, I'm tired, so tired. I miss the summer when the sun wouldn't set 'til after 9. The darkness is just too depressing. Well, it's not too long until the equinox anyway, and then the days will start getting longer again. Then I guess I'll have something to look forward too. This cycle of the days growing longer and shorter happens every year like clockwork —although I guess that's kind of a redundant comparison. Forgive me, I'm not the best at writing or making up original ideas. Especially when I'm stuck in traffic on the 401 in my teeny tiny small-as-shit car at 8:49 PM. Okay, practically speaking, my car's not really that small. It's a crummy 2001 Chevy Impala, which I guess makes it medium-size. At least it's not as small as those tiny 2-seaters. But being in here is making me feel claustrophobic. I don't have a blanket in my car. What if my gas cuts out?

Hey—I'm in Math, I could've used a comparison to a sine function or something.

But I don't remember if the amount of daylight per day followed a sinusoidal curve. Was that something I ever learned?

I feel pretty restless and I want to move my legs around, but I also have to keep my foot on the brake pedal. Can't this lane move any faster? I feel like I've inched forward 50 metres in the last five minutes. I breathe out a heavy sigh.

I guess not keeping a blanket in my car isn't too bad. Worst comes to worst, I'll always have my phone on me. Then I remember the fact that last Wednesday, I left my phone in MC 4021 after AMATH 250. Thankfully, it was still exactly where I had left it, lying face-down and without a trace of any malicious touch

when I went back to look for it a couple hours after. My phone's a Moto G6 though, and on top of that it's got an ugly, scuffed, cheapo plastic screen protector from AliExpress applied to it: I realize it's probably looks completely worthless to someone trying to make a quick buck by flipping stolen devices on Kijiji. It is actually completely worthless. So this all means that I'll probably always have my phone on me and I don't really need to have a blanket in my car.

Oh—but then what about when my phone's dead or I don't have reception? I've thought about this many times before, however, and for whatever reason, I don't start thinking about it now.

One thing I hate about being stuck in traffic is the idling. I can just feel the money and nitrogen oxides dribble out of the exhaust pipe as I sit, motionless in the lane. I feel helpless. The reason I left so late in the first place was to avoid post-workday traffic. Now I've been stuck in the snowstorm for over half an hour. My feeble car heater is just enough to stave off the feeling of ice in my fingers and toes, but I'd still kill to take a warm shower and bury myself under my quilts in my bed in my parents' house right now. If it wasn't for the traffic, I'd already be there by now. Now, I am stuck in horrid traffic on the 401. Now, now, now, now, now. Right now I'm on a slight incline, and with the falling snow it's hard to see how far ahead of me the traffic goes. All I now know is the license plate in front of me. SNVV-003. If only it was snowing a little harder right now, my windshield would be more wet and my wipers wouldn't be making that awful squeaking noise.

If I had a functioning car radio or an aux port, I could drown out the sound of the squawking wipers. I'd have something to take my mind off this traffic.

Distract me. I'm so tired but I can't fall asleep, you see? I'm so tired but I can't— I see the faint, flashing blue and red lights of two cop cars peek over the roofs of the cars ahead of me. Soon enough, I get to see the accident a little clearer.

Soon enough, I'm driving by the cop cars and ambulances. Soon enough, my own car's speedometer reads 105 Kph, and soon enough, I make it home past curfew.

ABSALOM ABALONE

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“Hot Cocoa” Clara Xi

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WAT is Zine?

The Rocky Mountains tower over a small boat launch on a frozen glacial lake in Alberta, Canada.

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Winter Landscapes by Jessen Liang

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WAT is Zine?

Gas produced by bacteria in Lake Minnewanka freeze in the winter to form ethereal bubbles trapped under the surface.

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Winter Landscapes by Jessen Liang

A boat sits, silent, as ice thaws around its mooring on Toronto’s Harbourfront.

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WAT is Zine?

A puppy kicks up fresh snow in Nose Hill Park, Calgary. Nose Hill is the fourth largest urban park in Canada, with 11 square kilometers of natural area in the middle of Calgary.

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Christmas Song The forest is silent Dark lines in white powder on pale morning fog In the half light, where the trees arch and twist into a crown There is a glade Under the snow’s watchful eye the ghosts of flora monuments stand Hooded figures waiting And thus the blood star sits buttressed by crystals Plain weed turned jewel Flowering cactus in the desert Crimson beacon to guide through the darkness Beneath its intoxicating, yet not potent points Icy rifts lead down to dried grass and frozen earth Tiny insects gather here Under the radiance of the blood star All is still Then a wind sweeps through the forest Snow falls The star shines A bird cries And day breaks on a Christmas song

- Lily Kramer Roth

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After the ice storm in February in a world coated in crystal, Earth heaved, sighed, and rolled over. so instead of snow it rained blowing cold bullets that splattered shrapnel everywhere, and the trees screeched, struggling against their icy chains. everything is frozen solid, slow and slippery, held in a snow-wrapped trance. black monument trees mark the way through the white abyss; roads drained of cars, paths disappeared. some daredevil skates kamikaze down the hill in the stillness, after the storm, the whole of creation is forced to take stock. broken branches need to be healed, weathered buildings and ravaged nests rebuilt.

by: lily kramer roth

Photos: JVCPhoto

Contributors Absalom Abalone Absalom is a second-year student in the Faculty of Mathematics who recently started driving their own car—a 2008 Toyota Corolla. Doesn't mind driving in the winter much.

Clara Xi 2A Computer Science. Fall '19 editor for mathNEWS. Layout designer for WAT is Zine?. C-List cryptid.

Gloria Cheung 4A legal studies co-op Hobbies: karaoke, board games, drawing/painting.

Fave food: sushi & tacos Catch me at cafes, clubs, and concerts.

Cheers!

Jessen Liang Alberta based photographer, Jessen Liang, has been developing his skills in landscape photography for the past 5 years. His work tries to capture the emotion inspired by the grandeur of nature, the sense of awe that comes when viewing the beauty of a scene.

Lily Kramer Roth Lily has been an English student at Waterloo for probably too long. At the moment she mostly likes to write poetry, but dapples in short stories and creative non-ďŹ ction too.

Fingers crossed on writing that novel someday! Lily is currently enjoying crocheting afghans for her family for Christmas.

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Issue 3 December 2019