by Sharon Gayen
Birthmark
I hold cards worth the most points closest to my chest:
black pines with tickling hairs yellow tips capped
a crane stands on one foot
red-crested head looks back on the red
sun as a child
I overlooked moons.peonies I chase
cards bearing animals as an adult
as a burnt orange boar
in bush.clover
the deer’s head & the autumn leaves
turn in time
Each animal in my hand
wet in solitude:
orange & red chrysanthemums bloom a man
an umbrella comes across a frog
while talons full-scoop spindly flowers
blood red like
a phoenix.my mother
I was fuller than a picture. almost straight. are irises. purple hearts. rounded.
their star-shaped season. leaves
your hand empty again
You are not versed in how to read what’s already left.
S-shaped necks. Bowing gracefully. Kowtow low. Then flap—
wings.dance
a bush warbler on plum blossoms
in the morning light
sings
Shareen K. Murayama is a Japanese-Okinawan American poet and educator who lives in Honolulu, Hawai`i. She spends her afternoons surfing and her evenings with her dog named Squid. She’s a reader for The Adroit Journal, and her art is forthcoming in Juked, Bamboo Ridge, The Margins, Riot Act, Cobra Milk Mag, and Near Window. You can find her on IG & Twitter @ambusypoeming.
Sharon Gayen, a corporate drone by the day and painter by the night, is a Hyderabad based artist who takes a keen interest in Pointillism, Kirie, Psychedelic and has recently ventured into cyberpunk artforms. She works with a variety of medium ranging from watercolors to charcoal, her favorite medium being ink. Having spent a lot of her life by the sea, she draws inspiration from crashing waves and crustaceans. She loves translating her favorite pieces of literature into art and is also fascinated by circles, triangles and trapezoids which she often incorporates into her work.