Aspirational as in sparkling water, BMWs and Model United Nations.
Generational as in wealth runs out, trauma lasts forever.
Emotional as in congratulations, mental illness runs in the family. Also, coronary heart disease.
Delusional as in protect me from the virulence that lives inside of me.
Inspirational as in don’t close your eyes just yet, the best is yet to come. Everything, everywhere sublime.
Dysfunctional as in feels like God in heaven’s gone insane.
Motivational as in thinking fondly of you every time I skip a meal.
(What is it all for if not for you?)
Fictional as in daylight savings, self-conception and natural human good.
Irrational as in unfettered happiness bores me. Wrap your hands around my cold, taut neck.
thump,
thump,
thump,
thump,
thump.
Exceptional as in some day, beauty will save the world.
Pain threshold
saccharine adolescent dream
emotional gut-punch
chronology of my cringe
incomprehensible boredom
delusional echo chamber
wish fulfilment factory
naked superstition
secret something something
pathological disappointment
gorgeous desire
mindfuck gymnasium
bullshit love of my life
corporeal tantrum
supposedly poignant moment
fucking morality clause
personal lol hellscape
impregnable perfection
most intimate betrayal
Poems by Shin Hui Lee
Images by Oliver Truelove
Shin Hui Lee is a freelance writer based in London, working primarily across creative non-fiction and poetry. She draws on anything and everything, distinguishing no single human experience as worthier of observation than another. Shin Hui’s writing practice can be defined by her exploration of language as a convergence point for the subjective and the objective. Through the careful manipulation of words, moments of total ambiguity coexist seamlessly with that of striking specificity, allowing readers to project themselves upon her texts however they wish.
