Duane L. Herrmann

Contributor Biography

Duane L. Herrmann, a reluctant carbon-based life-form, surprised to find himself in 1951 on a farm in Kansas, is still trying to make sense of that and in the process has produced work that has been published in print and online in more places than he can remember, as well as a few different languages, while falling in love with grass waving in the wind, moonlight and trees.

WALKING WRECK

I didn’t know,
most of my life,
how damaged
I was;
maybe ignorance
let me continue,
but now
after decades of exhaustion,
I see limits
I could not pass,
shattered hopes—
unattainable,
and dead ends
with no possibility.
Accomplishments too,
but wreckage
as I am:
a walking wreck.

Lim Liang Ying

Contributor Biography

Lim Liang Ying is a student at Tampines Meridian Junior College. She is a participant of MOE's Creative Arts Programme (CAP), under the mentorship of Desmond Kon.

if it were up to me

—for M

this is what would happen.
i would come up to you
and point out all the things you got wrong—
how saying yes doesn't make you any better of a person,
how doing so much work doesn't make you any more accomplished.
how keeping your negativity to yourself doesn't make you any stronger,
how your mask is cracking and everyone can see it, everyone
but you.

and if it were up to me,
i would have you break
into a million zinc pieces,
crushed and pulverised into nothing.
i'd then place your ashes in a pot,
and from there would grow a seed.
i would have you sick, too,
a 40-degree fever burning.
you'd sweat out all the toxins,
and wake up new.

and if it were up to me,
i would make this real.
because you are drifting
further and further away,
your body an empty shell—
and i can only stand,
and look at you.