Chua Jia Wen Issue 1: RISE, July 2023 when the sun has set and my eyes are spared the sky’s streamingblindness you will still be the god that vanished upon being revered that iwill must stumble back into one day though i know not how or when stilladulterating even in your stilling absence making me…

i.m. David Wong Hsien Ming Issue 1: RISE, July 2023 Napkin on clouded jade & blue mould up from under, thin smile saying nothing stays white. Ponyboy’s gold reasonable in hindsight. Easy to say it’s the same doom but here 250 didn’t get a couplet, let alone a catchphrase, didn’t get let alone. • Imagine…

Max Pasakorn Issue 1: RISE, July 2023 where i still live on the glaze of the ocean & the sun shows up to work in a t-shirt that says something meaningless like, “Go Slay The Day, Mama!!” & my home is snug enough to house my obsession of seaweed paintings & i cash in my…

Cheng Him Issue 1: RISE, July 2023 In times to come, will there be people who will have real faith in theseteachings? – The Diamond Sutra ah seng ah, when you go to school remember hor, dont ownself own ownself. what the teacher say is what the teacher say. ask yourself: what is it ah…

Jamie Uy Issue 1: RISE, July 2023 you were born during hungry ghost month. in the basement a wet kitchenand buddha. a fat milkfish gutted for your first birthday, with one hundredand eighty translucent bones. while the radio cassette played the chantingof monks in their saffron robes, you were baptised in an alabaster church.your mother…

Christian Yeo Issue 1: RISE, July 2023 The rapeseed fields are parsing through what belongs to memory and what to loneliness. I sleep with a turn of phrase, then awake reciting its name. The schools are welcoming back bicycle-bound children in this lung of a town. In spite of the year I hold my peace…