Michael Onwutalu — Houston, TX Illustration by Ines Alto I had been listening to a lot of Kelsey Lu in anticipation of their newest album, So Help Me God. Specifically, I had been hooked on the singer’s debut album, Blood, the music capturing a pre-Covid naïveté that I’ve grown fond of. “Due West,” the album’s 2018 lead single, is so 2019, and what was I doing then? I was completing the transition to high school, binging Game of Thrones, tuning in weekly to Euphoria, and prac

By Hannah Lui This crossword's themed (starred) entries feature cryptic clues. Across 1. Band with hits Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! , Money, Money, Money , and I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do 5. One's predecessor? 9. Misstep 14. Tattled 15. "__ beast be lord of beasts" ( Hamlet) 16. Scalp pest 17. Hammer or sickle 18. From where to best view a Monet, say 19. Letter-shaped support 20. How one might describe a relationship that's been over for ages… or a hint to the answers to the starre

By Hannah Lui Illustration by Selin Ho Turtle-necked at the Kawai where he learned to waltz&rag. And compose and doodle and dance but I only hear Scott Joplin’s Maple Leaf tortured from the copper When I think of him here At the piano I am looking at his post-op face on my phone. Not as bad as I expected Mom says When he left two days ago the last time I saw the face she bore, his&this hits me now Now, Fog bruising purple, his nose is not the same Thick hanging hea

By Hannah Lui and Ava Lozner Illustration by Jing Geng Affirmative by Hannah Lui In the summertime … The city festers with the impatience of a man lying awake waiting for his wife to return from her lover, feeling the heat stir… My favorite work of literature begins thus. It is a fragment of an unpublished series of essays belonging to Haruki Murakami, the man from whom I take all my philosophies of life. The ellipses exclude a three-page description of a young woman’s breast

As foretold by The Blue & White . By Hannah Lui Illustration by Em Bennet Aries: This autumn you may realize you’ve outgrown people or behaviors from your past. These changes may feel uncertain, but you will come into your own and settle into new routines. Watch the sunset from Riverside Park sometime this month. When it gets dark out, find a leaf on the grass and literally turn it over. Taurus: Get that money up! The stars say it’s a prosperous season ahead. Let good things

Spring trees bloom, and my daydreams do too. By Hannah Lui Illustration by Etta Lund I spent spring break in two of...