ALEXANDRIA QUARTERLY

MAD & MOONLY
SPRING 2018

SOO YOUNG YUN

HAN

Han has always detested the rising sun with a passion. Ironically, Han is the most spirited when the sun reveals itself from its blanket of the sea. Everyone knows Han can get a little violent under the sun; after all, the sun brings out the best and the worst in Han. Recently, however, Han has developed a penchant for candles scented with persimmon. To keep its emotions at bay, Han has begun sticking candles through paper cups, so that the fire does not escape the paper rim. Candles have taught Han how to relax, how to control its spite and anger and indignation at injustice and the way people divide spoons in gold, silver, bronze, and dirt-caked. Although Han’s mortal enemy is the sun, nowadays it has been battling with itself, has been trying to improve to become a better being. And Han is proud, for instead of knives and self-harm, it can now use candles, small but blazing nonetheless.

ALBERT ZHANG

ERASURE

I was was old, maybe five hundred years
in the midst of history.
trying to explain something. The only words we knew were
Pivo-beer and Dobro-good.

Perhaps he was twenty-five.
When the waiter
bought our Brains
in a bag, lamb brains cooked in a paper bag. We recalled
how the waiter made a circle, then knocked his forehead.
music from the street, a warm breeze
smelling of foliage and the dust of a thousand years.
the constant clatter of silverware on dishes.
The waiter dead now.
Killed by those casual laughers

Scattered, scattered.
into the dark, perhaps glittering
Somewhere it still moves.
creatures that love and slaughter.

ELYSE THOMAS

SPOILED

curdled lip stains
my tongue, sour
pressed like tattoo
against my taste buds

i’ve been left for strawberries
in the left hand glove compartment,
rummaging crimson
like luggage between your teeth,
taking flight into esophagus

it isn’t fair

your bleached hands
hold my fate in anxious flurries
across the globe
of my nutritional prints

i always watch you
sift
melting ice cream streams
above your lips,
semi-sweet chocolate chip
mountain top
above your cupid's bow

if you only knew
my expiration date
leads close to my death
finish me off
before i’ve spoiled

            afterthought-
                        when cheese ages
            it only gets
                                    better

Soo Young Yun is a writer from Seoul, South Korea. Soo's writing has been recognized by the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, Aerie International Journal, Writing for Peace Organization, Skipping Stones Youth Honor Awards, among others. Soo's work has appeared or is forthcoming in Burningword Literary Journal, DUENDE, Emerald Coast Review, Hawai'i Review, Red Weather, Vignette Review, Watershed Review, among other journals and anthologies. 

Albert Zhang is Head Editor for The Westminster Schools Bi-Line, the school newspaper and oversees as Sports Section Editor as well. He is also Co-Editor-in-Chief of Evolutions Magazine, The Westminster Schools’s annual creative writing magazine. Albert attended The Kenyon Review workshop, was a SCAD Silver Scholar, and has been published in Celebrating Art Magazine and exhibited at Atlanta’s High Museum, Capitol Building, and National Fair.

Elyse Thomas is a 9th grader enrolled in her school's creative writing program. Elyse has been published in several anthologies, including The Odet, Poetry Matters, Jet Fuel Review, and the American Poetry Digest, among others. She has also received several gold and silver keys and a national gold medal in the alliance with Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards. Elyse is allergic to her own cat.

Juli Schlaen is 16 years old. She attends an arts school for the Creative Writing program. She enjoys writing poems, and short stories. In her free time, she loves going to the beach and hanging out with friends. She hopes to become a well-known blogger someday. Check out Juli's blog: thatimpatientpatient.tumblr.com