Category: Toronto
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My Jaan
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Every Missing Piece
Artwork by Ada Chan Everyone starts off with a clean slate. A fresh board and a brand new array of chalks set with the expectation of creation. Most may not turn out to be great, but every stroke is of paramount weight. They carry the potential to be anything—or at the very least, to…
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The hole that almost ruined my life (everything is actually okay)
My favourite jeans opened in the middle Right between the legs Caused by friction, denim on denim Thighs that touch denim and denim that touches denim that touches thighs You get the point They didn’t split all at once It was slow, the denim fading from blue to white then The hole began Small and…
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See What cellophane Can Do for You
It breaks my heart that she showed her haters that they hurt her. She’s too precious and shouldn’t have given them a molecule of proof of how they hurt her. This comment under FKA twigs’ transcendent music video for her 2019 song cellophane frustrates me deeply. This is partly due to the infantilizing impulse…
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; I am a sinner, and yet your daughter nonetheless
In the tempest of your words, I cannot help but search for your God. Am I a product of your shame? Do you wish for me to hold abounding grace when you say my body holds no refuge, not even worthy of His name? If I were mended by the Lord’s glory, would you…
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catch, stitch, release
Artwork by Jamie Mann Somewhere in Eastern Europe, 1974 The atelier was a brick building sitting in between glass ones, but it had not always been. Before the dilapidated Hanover Street had become subsumed by the city’s banking district, it was nothing more than a stone road of terraced houses; old and spacious…
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Scrapbook
Artwork by Tara Khoo It’s difficult for me to understand you now— to comprehend the pain you inflict while my heart breaks at the thought of you knowing. I don’t know if I can confess the distress you caused, through exhausted breaths and broken sentences, choked up tears, legs shaking in restlessness. I feared…
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SELF-CONTAINED SURGICAL PRACTICE
Artwork by Yza Palangas The preoperative evaluation reveals significant burning in the right atrium, a cracked distal phalanx, a buildup in the pharynx, and an abscess hanging like dead meat from a sliver of bone. Symptoms include shaking, ballet-esque movement, fingers and toes pointed straight up. Upon further inspection, I note butterflies—bent, torn, rotting—leaking…
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Sick
“You know what happened.” Familiar voice says accusatorily, spitting it at me. I stare absent-mindedly at the dull yellow walls covered in ornate silk fabrics. A mildly stress-inducing attempt to mimic comfort. Distracted now, pull my attention back to the singular pillow beneath me and the bright, warm lamp shining in my direction like a…
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A Scarf, And Everything Else
I walk up a small hill, and my footsteps weave with the snow, pressing into familiar patterns of warmth. I notice similarities of shape— my footprints as the scarf she gave me, the scarf hanging above them, threatening to fall. I consider its weight a longing to reunite with its wild, aesthetic form. I have…
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You Have To Fight with Your Partner
I knew I no longer loved my ex-boyfriend for months before we broke up. It was cruel of me to stay for as long as I did. Though I didn’t love him anymore and ending the relationship crossed my mind often, I was never brave enough to act on it. Instead, I shackled us both…
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From Luröy, With Love
Artwork by Denise Xiao (Context: “Luröy” is a set of wooden bed slats from IKEA, notorious for collapsing under the slightest shift of weight. There’s no way to properly secure these slats to a bedframe; you just have to keep re-aligning them each time they fall through the frame. I’ve been dealing with sleep…
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Stitch in Time
Artwork by Jayda Korn My watch has been broken four times, and fixed almost as many. 1. A great mid-July asphalt swelter had set in on the city. The blue glass of the finance quarter scintillated in the sunlight, and the tinny hot-dog stands emitted waves of heat around the train station.…
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TANTRUM!
Artwork by Leo Pinheiro I threw so many tantrums when I was a kid. My parents never understood why I was so frustrated. Fair, I don’t think I understood either – I just had big feelings. Feeling that would only find their way out by screaming my throat raw, through bruises on my knees…
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Baby vs. Bathwater
Artwork by Kali Mitres These things, they’re unavoidable. If you get stuck, the only way out is through. You were worried, you knew it was too late, that you were in too deep. You knew. He told you: what are you going to do—stop? These things, they all blend together in time. You…
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backstitch
Artwork by Maggie Kane she bears the weight of her solitude alone in that house, belonging to two. the knitted touch of love, simply a frequent visitor in the hours spent sifting through my memory. is there any comfort in this sorrow? any quilted pleasure, woven in this pain? so tell…
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Call me broken, I’ll call you wrong
Artwork by Gertie Genovese I was born of perfect porcelain; formed in a short cylindrical mold with a handle to hold. I was painted with beautiful designs — florals and paislies, golds and silvers, wisps and winds. I held what you cannot. The burning liquids inside me, swallowed whole by you. I knew my…
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scissortail
Artwork by Maggie Kane i. the first thing i learned about dying was that you didn’t have to. it would be another year before i stopped counting the swallows in the eaves, and every time the chestnut tree dragged a knobbly hand across the window i would see its small black body spasming…