Cabbage Patch Kid

by Róise Curran

it’s not my cabbage patch it’s not quite but I call it home.

Except when I call home, then I call it house.

“I’m going to my Galway house tonight, can you give me a lift to the bus stop” and my mother says “of course,” so I go and I stay for a week that turns into a month, I stay for years.

When does a house turn into a home?

When you find a new chest to nestle into?

When you grow your own cabbage patch kids? When your mother moves in?

When will my mother move in?

When she’s old and I’m older with a bad back and a sore shoulder and when bones grow stiff and colder.

I don’t like seeing my mother with grey hair.

Róise Curran is a 19 year old poet from the West of Ireland. She has been writing since she was 16 and hasn’t stopped since. Many people describe her poems as uniquely visual and sincere, but that’s just from her friends and family. She has a dog named Ritza and two cats named Flower and Alan. She hopes to make something big someday so keep your eyes peeled!

by dora gan

just 1/365, but it’s the 1/365 here’s another lap around the sun, here, have a medal, a cake, an extra candle and a +1 it’s a cake of expectations. of pomp and grandeur and magic, of suddenly being able to do more, take in more, we loved turning older. but when did the cake turn bitter, when did the extra candle become claustrophobic and the extra number become a burden weighing you down, i remember when i looked forward to that 1/365, red velvet and cream cheese, dunce caps and party poppers, wrapping paper strewn across the floor to use materialism to hide the lack of substance in me take a fist full of cake and let it crumble between my fingers, the way it disintegrates, the particles

Photography by Wiktoria Sadowska

to the abyss of hell, blood red velvet flavoured hell, the particles like my life and my fortress, collapsing around me, throwing the white flag to the higher power of time, humanity, and mortality the pointy hat a dunce cap, a noose, sentencing me to forced joy at a cake i didn’t eat and a number i didn’t want time is a construct. there is no point. but if we have to do this ritual, then add one. and if adding one is too easy, here’s a problem for you: x years ago today, it was slime and amniotic fluid on the floor and mother screaming and father staring and you crying and gasping for breaths in a dark hospital room with family and friends gathered outside to witness the spectacle today, it is crumbs and champagne on the floor and mother screaming and father staring and you crying and gasping for breaths in a dark bedroom with family and friends gathered outside to witness the spectacle y = happiness, x = years, find the turning point when the cake turned bitter, when the candles became claustrophobic, when birthday became another day hint: differentiate

Dora Gan is a high school junior from Hong Kong. You can find her reading anything Agatha Christie, baking banana bread, or drawing random doodles on notebooks. A self proclaimed mathematician turned humanities student, she still loves integrating mathematical concepts into her writing.

Photographer Feature: Chloe Brooke

Chloe was born in the Philippines and is now a student in Hong Kong. Being ethnically Filipino, Chinese and British has fostered an insatiable curiosity for the world’s cultural diversity that never ceases to stop. Her free-spirited personality stems from her theatrical background, as she has performed in Shouson theatre and written spoken word for HKYAF. You can find her snapping shots for @ochloi, editing videos, or creating Spotify playlists for every mood she has. She never misses an opportunity to express herself or to crack a dad joke.

I lived in the Philippines my whole life until my family migrated to Hong Kong when I was six.The free-spirited 6-year-old climbing guava trees hemmed in by the urban concrete jungle. Having spent my whole life in the Philippines despite being a quarter Chinese by blood, I felt far away from home. The fast-paced city of Hong Kong never seems to go to sleep took some getting accustomed to. As I grew, I adapted to city life and can now admire it many charms, from the soaring skyscrapers to the modern means of transport.

My phone was used to take these photographs, after which I edited with my own preset to achieve the desired ‘film’ aesthetic Although green is typically linked with nature, I found the photos of the city to be a particularly striking juxtaposition with the green hues. I believe this helped the photographs effectively convey the spirit of Hong Kong.

My love for photography will never fade because it allows me to preserve and cling onto priceless moments with the click of a button. My everlasting appreciation goes to photography for allowing me to capture fleeting moments in time as permanent works of art.