The Featured Work Page is a chance to spotlight certain pieces that will be presented in our issue. If you choose to be featured, your work will be displayed briefly. All artwork and writing that is submitted will be included in our issue but will only be featured by the artists wish. 

Beleaguered in Love

By Gian Delos Reyes, a new writer in the realm of creative writing and a senior high school student from a university in the Philippines.

"Beleaguered in Love is a poem that resonates with the yearning to love someone, yet those past, painful relationships await us back. The feeling of fear to love someone while anticipating that they will come and go is painful, as it seems, and can traumatize you afterwards."

Imbued in subtle growth, nuanced below my throat,

There it resides within my heart, 

Benignly pounding all the veins that were sown,

I'm harbored with a mind swirling in crimson hues,

While I glimpse you in the corner of your shadow.

I would fondly trap you

In the vast expanse of the void,

Somewhere far;

Somewhere distant, beyond where my vision can scope.

Yet, it seems stubbornly inherent,

As if your vanity is fated to be seen,

And I find myself imprisoned within those eyes,

My neck slaughtered by a thousand glances.

I behold you like a siren, bewitched,

My eyes anchored to the character I perceive,

Entangled in every dimension where you’d be.

But why do I fear the feeling you fostered? 

Why do I hate this tethered affinity for bridled love? 

I long to cradle your face bestowed by the celestial angels of heaven.

I would dare to yell the majesty that you are. 

I would chase your hand amidst the thunderous rain,

Protecting you like a saint of pain.

I'm willing to bleed just so your voice stays 

Within the chambers of my ear.

Yet, here I am…with a tear upon my face.

Suddenly, I find myself beside my weathered clock,

Desperately attempting to turn its hands back.

Memories of the past invade my thoughts,

Those doomed relationships begin to butcher

The sanctuary of my mind.

The stinging embrace of hushed loneliness,

The dearth of bliss,

And the tormenting ache gradually engulf me once more.

The smile I plastered every Monday

Turns into the tears that cascade every Friday.

And as I hereby look at you once again,

All I could think of are the smoldering scars,

Leaving me petrified of loving anew,

For I reside in a cosmos

Where the painful past relentlessly follows me back.

Autumn Moons

By Alcashmira Sumawiganda

Let the leaves fall, my love,

And let colors fade away.

Nobody wants a false siren,

No room for make-believe in the market.

Serenade your blues, read your books,

Paint your nails in burgundy hue.

The year may have been forlorn, but let it crumble in ruins,

For the season approaches when your heart speaks fluently.

The season that welcomed you,

The season that welcomed love,

And the season that reconciles fate,

Like coffee, its addiction and its bitter taste.

Just like your lover's favorite, cinnamon,

And the favorite scent fresh from the oven,

Vanilla and cashmere wood in a fragrance,

And a flavor that calls to mind the warmth of home.