What are the qualities that attract us to those we date? This question can be debated without ever reaching a conclusive answer, but to some people, the answer is actually quite simple.

It’s natural for people to characterize the people we meet into neat schemas, “A pattern imposed on complex reality or experience to assist in explaining it, mediate perception, or guide response” (dictionary.com), since that simplifies identification and file the information away for future reference.

It’s Friday night, and I am sitting in a beautiful hotel room in Manila. The window looks out to a modernized nightscape, and I could see Shangri-la Hotel in a distance. The Conan O’Brien Show is playing on the television and the audience is laughing at a punch-line I did not catch.

Meet Chun Sue. Teenage rebel and high school drop out. A parent’s worst nightmare. She is also a writer, a dreamer, a lover, and a rock ‘n’ roll fan who isn’t afraid to pursue her passions.

This issue, Halfway editors have compiled a few poems that relate to some of the articles published in this month’s edition. The work is the property of it’s original author. You can begin to view them below.