Ditch Lilies
All across the yard, false peach. Elm trees spitting shadow on their heads. Like an ocean, he says, thumbing the brim of his cap, like lilies. The golden in them. We’re far away from ourselves, her ashes dusted in a field, your voice still scattering my dreams. The pastor bles
Eggs and tea
(For Jessica) I’ve been trying to eat fewer eggs lately on the head of your soi at the kai jeow stall we’d stand in flip-flops hands crumpling green notes and watch eggs swirl into omelettes in a smoking black wok and a savoury steam would slip like a whisper into your elevator,
The Isis Photography Competition HT21
The Isis Magazine held its first ever photography competition in Hilary Term 2021, judged by Antonio Perricone, former Editor-in-Chief of the Isis and Junior Photo Editor at Vogue. Overall winner: Aaron Hammond Duncan (St Hilda’s) – ‘Tom Outside My House’ For my entry to the compe
A Boys’ World
“If you’re a woman, you will earn less than a man.” This is what Theresa May had to say about a woman’s position in Britain during her first speech as prime minister. Sexism is a safe, even fashionable issue for party leaders to be seen tackling, but action is harder to come by. Flipping thr
Diet Democracy
In 2019, Lung Mun Cafe and Hung Hom Cafe stood side by side on Cameron Road. Both were typical chachaanteng diners, serving charsiu spaghetti soup and other edible remnants of Hong Kong’s colonial era. There were always long queues in front of Lung Mun; Hung Hom went out of business by the end of
Plum jam / West Coast Oranges
I’ve been thinking about getting old. Not considering getting old: that would be a luxury quite beyond me. I am growing up; Mother has grown a plum tree in the garden. This year we had too many fruits, the last almost none at all. Lingering on each, Brother and I pick [
out of sync
maybe we’ll come together again in the neighbourhood coffee shop that stands at the edge of feeling and maybe we’ll know what we want – the smells of fried bread, cooking oil, and overripe fruit blending into each other as my eye
Summertown
edgeways winter white-mouthed streetlamps waver the keys in my pocket like anxieties rattle their skins against each other a smattering of fireworks clinking against
An Hour After the Phone Call
the woman with a cigarette curses upwards death takes too long she says she grows inside out to house her flaws laughs again despite the walls she laughs despite the persistence she laughs her raspy voice passes through me and flows into another ear ca