by Amrutha Prabhu
A Constellation of Bruises
today, my mother teaches me –
to arrange my bruises along the landmass
of my limbs, and to let them twinkle like stars
that tenderly kiss, the flame of autumn
she teaches me –
to put a bruise on my earlobe
and one between my fingers
just so that my bruises
look like jewels
she teaches me –
to shove the uglier bruises
under a bra-strap or a dress-hem
as I sort, select, shuffle between
which bruises to show
which bruises to hide
today, my mother teaches me –
to fold a wince
into a smile, and the art
of swallowing a sob, and when my throat
gets all salty, afterward
she says, the tanginess will soon abate
and finally, as she whispers farewell
into the folds of my wedding veil
the wavering threads of her whimper
entangled with the silk
she leaves me, a stargazer –
to this constellation
of bruises
A seventeen year old girl from India, Praniti Gulyani has been published in over thirty literary journals worldwide. She has won numerous laurels in the field of creative writing and poetry, such as the Gold Finalist Award in The Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition, the 3rd Position in the Creative Writing Competition organized by Books by The Banks (Cincinnati Regional Book Festival) amidst others. She aspires to pursue a creative writing degree in the near future.
Amrutha Prabhu, a computer engineer, discovered her love for poems and art in her mid-30-ies. Having worked as a software developer for more than 13 years, she strongly feels that life’s most meaningful things are not things. A nature lover and cooking enthusiast. She considers herself fortunate to be an Indian and values her rich culture and heritage. Of all roles that she plays, she feels, being a learner – most enjoyable, being a mother – most challenging, and being a woman – most vulnerable. Her love for learning, art and poems found home at Haiku, Haiga and related Japanese forms of poetry. She has several of her works published in reputed journals. She is a kind of person who makes little happy notes of moments that makes life worth living. Most of the times it is arrested through her poems and paintings; or expressed through food. She believes at 80, she might be cherishing these little happy notes that made her days.