We Imagine, We create. This Is Our Nation.

I swam through the lake with his star in my hand. It seems to still be working. It’s showing me the way to somewhere new. I knew I couldn’t stay here for much longer. Or just like Soldier I’d start transcending uncontrollably to somewhere else. I thought to myself that if I’m going to move on then I’m going to do it by my hand and not by the fates. After all, I’m travelling through the moments. The sisters’ thread and scissor has no reach in a place like this. I’m making my own destiny here.

The space here felt so big. Like I could swim forever and still be far away from the next moment. There was no such thing as sound either in this realm. The more I swam the more I realized how scary this place really was. It was full of hopes and dreams, all sharing one thing in common, Secret stories and lives that we never knew. As I swam the dreams were getting more and more eccentric. I swam past a rattle that was cracked and had some missing parts. It chilled me to the bone thinking of what went wrong with this dream. There was also a very old picture of a man in an army suit. I took it and turned it around to look at the back. It read:

My dearest Julia,

The war is almost over.

One last mission and I’m coming home. :)

Can’t wait to see our new girl.

-Love Jack

I realized why this picture was in this moment. It didn’t come true. It never became a star. I stood still for a bit taking all of this in. A tear escaped from my eye as I tried to think about how happy they must’ve been together,  and how sad they must be now.  As I let go of the picture I really wished that I could do something for them. But that’s not how it works. Not in this moment, not in the next, not anywhere. It’s up to those people to turn this dream into hope.  I looked around and saw all the other stars and trinkets. It wasn’t like there were more hopes than dreams. It looked like they were pretty much levelled. Secured by that thought I started swimming forward again, letting Soldier’s star pull me in the right direction.

 I started thinking about how much I wanted to get out of here. I didn’t like this moment anymore. It was beautiful once but now it means nothing to me. And I had an epiphany. It’s time for me to move on. A smile crept across my face and I started to feel better, finally. Then suddenly I felt a breeze. Breeze? That doesn’t exist in this moment. Then I felt another one. And then more and more cold air started hitting me. What is this? I looked at the vast sea of objects and little bright lights infront of me and they started moving too. They started circulating all around me. The wind just kept getting stronger and stronger and my heart started beating faster. At this point I had no idea what was happening. The stars got brighter and brighter until my eyes couldn’t stand it anymore and I had to close them. The wind just kept on running all around my body. In the safety of my head I could only think of what was happening to myself. I held on tightly to the star. My sense of direction started to get distorted and I felt extremely disoriented. Like the whole world was shifting position.Then I felt a surface touching my back. I realized I was now lying down and the wind had stopped. I was curious to open my eyes but thought of what would I see when I did. I guessed there would only be one way to find out. So I opened my eyes.

by: Alex Romualdez, 2009

your kiss is my kiss
and we are so
- just so.
held together by the
inner tangles in our souls.

your hand is my hand
clasped tight
so tight (like
our touch is of greatest intimacy)
the key to wonders never ceased -

now

i know without telling
your faith is my faith
(bound and broken,
rebuilt)
wider than oceans
smoother than silk

your hope is my hope.
(lost, forsaken,
and found)
sustainable in all conditions
by all thoughts only positive in your eyes.

is this not proof enough
of a truth i fight to show? - that
i don’t need to ask
(only love. for I love)
your love is my love.
no questions.

You’re My Star

by Javi Bermejo

There’s a lake found in the middle of a moment

Where the scythe does not reap

Where the star-spattered water knows not of the boundary it shares with the sky

Littered air with trinkets that hold lives we never knew of

I swim with you through the discord, unharmed under your wings, soldier

The rust on that clock and the damage of that doll

The soiled letter and that broken picture frame

We fall further into it’s eccentric depths

As the pressure tightens our chests, we just hold each other closer

But something is wrong

Your transcending away from here for reasons far off in another place

I hold on tightly as the very last of you has left me

I kiss your painful wounds one last time

And all remains is a star, I hold it dearly

You did not leave behind a broken dream, you leave behind hope

Light that never fades as I stay with it in this lone abyss

As you are at a distance unfathomable to me, I smile

You are defeating the demons that haunt you

Destroying the chains that hold you

And your wings will be free to fly again one day

I’ll meet you in a different moment

Where we are safe and dry

Fields of grass run wild and trees sway in the breeze

And the sun that you’ve longed to see so much will awaken

It’ll rise up and love you and hold you in it’s warmth

The hope you left me will lead me the right way

Even if it is not where you are or if I can’t stay

You’ll always be with me.

Like broken porcelain. Smoother, matted, refined, almost soft to the touch.
Like sand on a shore. Coarse all alone, soft when combined, malleable with water.
Like the ocean’s waves. Hard, passionate, strong, swift, temperamental, melancholy, but so utterly ALIVE…
That’s you.

A fresh batch of driftwood. Moving along the water, colliding with broken porcelain, smoothened by the sand.
That’s me.

(by Alex Romualdez, 2009)

by: Alex Romualdez, January 2009

I thought I saw your personality in the sale bin at Hot Topic last weekend
It was sitting between the first Early November EP and cuffs with rubber spikes.
$9.99 to grow your own spine
What do you know
I always knew there was something painfully unoriginal about you.

You must have been so disappointed when you got there
And the Grow Yourself A Personality: Electro-Punk edition was all sold out
Along with the “I’m One-of-A-Kind” certificates
And the 7 (Bad) Habits for High and Affected Teenagers workbook.
Suppose you had to settle with what you got now
Although I can’t quite figure it out just yet
It’s just that you’re just like everybody else
Who hasn’t grown a brain.
And has no clue how to use her heart.

Written by: Dans Bermejo
Dated: April 11, 2009 

Naked and twisted in these sheets
This raw sense of existentialism, it makes me vulnerable
It makes my skin crawl with pleasure and my heart beat faster
It makes me anxious as I sit on the edge of this cliff
Or have I already fallen?

I know nothing else, see nothing else…
but I’m naked and you’re free
I’m hiding beneath these clouds, these storms, the lightning
You’re unyielding as a ray of sun - piercing and fierce
I am nothing but naked with you

Written by: Dans Bermejo
Dated: May 4, 2009 

There will be no two ghosts in my bedroom tonight
Instead the eyes of angels who watch
Who wait and sigh and live in our dreams

There will be no two ghosts in my headlights
Instead the passenger seat presence of a boy who waits
Who cries and screams and lies broken 

There will be no devils in our wake
Instead the holy lights and extended arms that save us
That turn the obstacles into both tears of sorrow and joy

There will be fallen angels in our midst
Instead of the pain we drown in time and time again
They’ll lift us up and reveal their wings
Massive beauties created to take flight
Made of love, faith, hope and beauty
They’ll wake us and turn our hearts to gold 

Written by: Dans Bermejo
Dated: December 9, 2009 

Look past the shallow waters
Deep into the heart of me
The anguish and the sorrow
The sacrifice, the plea

You say deep words and make big actions
But for the love of man, please see
The words your sword cuts through
Are little pieces inside of me 

My true love has unfolded
In your eyes, lay witness to it all
Long gone the ship has sailed
Far the cry of cannonballs 

What evil defies love
The forces so tempting
The world I held in my hands
It fell away for everything

Too far to quit, too low to fall
My battles seemingly fought in vain
But the justice lies in His hands
In Him I trust, my joy and my pain 

What evil defies love
The forces so tempting
The world I held in my hands
It fell away for everything

Too far to quit, too low to fall
My battles seemingly fought in vain
But the justice lies in His hands
In Him I trust, my joy and my pain