me and my goldfish sang a song for appa
one saturday evening, my goldfish played Moon River on the record                 player. i hummed. hummed as i looked down at my buttered toast.                  toast that looked isabelline and smelled like umma’s cloying                         perfume. the river i saw from my window hugged the electric blue                  clouds, the winds, and the softness from the dancing saffron                         tangerines appa planted in our garden. i sang the line, Two drifters,                   off to see the world; there’s such a lot of world to see, and my                       goldfish would sing, we’re after the same rainbow’s end, waitin’                     ’round the bend and i looked back at the window if appa was there.                     if he was there with his friend, the other drifter. i chewed on my                     buttered toast. isabelline butter: the fairy lights to a dark cave i                       inhabit inside of me. dark cave with no beauty — an empty flower                    pot. my dark cave, the empty lantern, brightens up when i put my                    feet inside the lukewarm river. when the river becomes my second                  appa. and i draw my appa’s face, my appa who left to see the world,                  with a wooden stick on the sepia sand. his eyes, his lips, his nose —                    his orange-shaped face. i think of him, and i guess my goldfish                     thinks of him too as it rinses its pelvic fins inside the river, and we                  think of him over and over again as we sing the Moon River over                      and over again. we sing to the moon. and the blonde moon would                    sing to appa, who is on the other side of the world over and over                    again.
on my way to the swimming pool
Author: Claire Kim
Claire Kim is a rising high school junior from California, studying the wonder of creative writing. A lover for all things, Claire primarily enjoys writing poems and short stories. When she is not writing, she likes to doodle on leftover origami papers while listening to music.
artist: Derrick Breidenthal
Derrick Breidenthal has been a professional artist for over 15 years. His work is connected by techniques of gentle blending, diffusion, and illumination. he focuses attention on rare colors and conditions, Resulting in oil paintings that convey powerful beauty. Upcoming projects include a large collection of nocturnal paintings that will debut at a solo show at the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art in January of 2021.