YMK -

“Ode to a Crescent Love” by YMK -

I’ve never cared for another sound the way I do for that of her footsteps in the winter. As we make our way across the empty park, the impossibly light and crunchy tap, tap, tap of her destroyed sneakers on the packed snow is nearly enough to make me believe in the supposed magic of tonight. I told her I loved her a couple of days ago, and even before that I know she could tell, but as we walk in this incredible light and look for falling snowflakes twinkling in that way she adores, I want to say it again. There’s no time: tonight is the moo...

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“Body Double” by YMK -

The taste of a word has never felt so good in my mouth before. This one is just like hard candy: undeniably rough around its jagged edges, but soft and terribly sweet in the middle. Inviting, shiny, imperfect yet smooth, and devastatingly easy to swallow. And he’s got these hands, huge knotty knuckles atop bony meatless fingers, riddled with cuts and bruises from working on the unforgiving engines. On days like today, when I pass through the corridor of his quarters and allow myself to peek through the sliding glass doors of his workshop, ...

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“Troubled Waters” by YMK -

Submitted to Contest #83

CW: Mentions of suicide Right around April, maybe three years ago, we were sitting on the roof of our car, the old battered red Mitsubishi, parked right in the middle of the road. Friedman Avenue was void of traffic for a large majority of the time, so no one ever came to bother us while we sat there, looking up at the massive grey clouds. It had been raining for an hour, and we’d been there, motionless, for just as long. Nathan was dead silent, and back then, that was not something I thought I would ever miss. The faint sound of his breat...

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“Tied Down” by YMK -

Submitted to Contest #79

For most of my childhood, my grandma, my aunt, my parents and I all lived in one big house in Ashwood, British Columbia, and though it was crowded, I loved being with all of them all the time. Though half-White, I was still the only Asian kid for hundreds of kilometres around, I had a weird name, and I had no one my own age to talk to. However, around the time I turned 12, my dad got a job in Ontario, and my parents moved to pretty much the other side of the country. Without me. They insisted they were doing it for my own good, that the...

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“Cowgirl Carter” by YMK -

Submitted to Contest #78

“If I see his face in the crowd, I swear to God, I will straight up puke on stage.” Carter is trying his hardest not to feel ashamed. It’s the story of his life, really. He's on the verge of hyperventilation and trying his damn hardest not to let the presence of a single person make this day any different. He came to win, dammit! He came with the intention of getting a massive trophy, and no one will get between him and that humongous piece of metal... Or so he tries to convince himself. Blake doesn’t even bother looking up at him from h...

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“r&j” by YMK -

Submitted to Contest #76

After a long silence. “What’s your favourite memory of us together?” “That’s an easy one. When you brought me home with you to Montevideo.” Genuinely surprised. “Oh yeah?” Brightly. “Definitely. I got to meet your grandma, who despite all your descriptions turned out to be the sweetest woman I’ve ever spoken to. I discovered all the places you grew up loving. I saw so many things that perfectly explained why you are the way you are. I’d never seen you so happy. I haven't seen so happy since, either. It felt like you were in your rightf...

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“The Other Me” by YMK -

Submitted to Contest #69

He’s the first one to rush to the door when I ring, as always. “Nick! A whole year, not one call? Always too busy in the big city, aren’t ya?” He says it with a reprimanding tone, but his smile tells me he’s truly happy to see me. I pull him into a hug, still covered in snow from the seemingly neverending storm outside. After I take off my heavy winter attire, he takes me into the living room, where the kids are excitedly decorating the tree. The joyous expression on their little faces is the same one I can so clearly see on his. “Well, ...

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