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The Imperfect Present

A Mother’s Love by Akanksha Pampangowdgari (USA, 17)

12/9/2023

 
​I never promised you the world
But you expect it from me anyway
And when I inevitably fail to deliver
Well-
​-I can’t stand the way you look at me
Like it’s so difficult to find something in me to love
I wish this was the angsty teen in me talking but
You’ve told me that much yourself
​​It seems that your love
was not meant for someone like me
When you said you wanted a daughter,
I don’t think you meant someone like me
​
​Once
You said that my biggest flaw was that I talk
​​Without a care of who’s listening.
All I’ve ever wanted was for you to listen
​I’m one wrong word away from
taking a vow of silence

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The Beauty of Touch by Rita McDermott (Pennsylvania, 63)

12/5/2023

 
​​Profound joy...
The first feel
Holding and touching
A newborn baby's skin.
Caring...
Hugging a friend.
Meaning...
Hearty handshakes
A pat on the back.
Intimacy...
Caressing a lover's body.
Love...
An unforgettable wedding day kiss.

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Soft by Christine Bissonnette (Canada, 34)

12/5/2023

 
​For 6 months last year
I stopped wearing a bra.
After 11 years of wearing a bra almost every single day,
I starting pulling my shirts and dresses over a completely bare upper half:
No lifting, uncomfortable straps.
For 6 months
I did this.

Some context?
I was in a state of perpetual stress, and wanted to test a theory:
That wildness was a quality
that I could inject into a personality
that was otherwise over-analytic and list-obsessed.
​
My spirit was searching.

Read More

Indestructible by Elinora Westfall (Denmark)

12/5/2023

 
​​Trigger warning: mentions of r*pe, domestic violence, manipulation

I’d met her at the beginning of Summer, when the air was hot and full of
woodsmoke and bonfires, and the skies and the days stretched out as long and as
endless as each other.

She was a catalogue of contradiction - rebellious and straight-laced, fearless as
well as frightened, a woman who seemed to be riding the back of the world,
holding on with one hand, and to her, I was a small cup, held beneath Niagara.
It happened all at once, the way things that grow in the heat of summer often do.
I love you’s were whispered, half-drunk as the sunset. Days upon days were spun
together, drifted like dandelion wishes and half-made plans were promised, one
after another, after another…

All filled with her.

She told me she would give me the world. She would make something of me. She
pointed out the holes in my patchwork skirt and the rips in my dungarees, she
took me to clothes shops, took away my bracelets and stripped me to the skin in
a sweaty changing room with fluorescent lighting, dressed me in sensible jeans
and plain white tops, and bought me two of each while I laughed at the thought
of a “girlfriend uniform”.

Read More

solid women by Eleanor (England, 26)

12/5/2023

 
​I searched for solidarity for women
And was greeted with
Hundreds of perfume ads
How to be attractive to the male gaze
Effervescent clothes shops
Even
“It is of vital importance that women are beautiful”
I was confused
And altogether disappointed
Since when did appearance and appealing to men
Have anything to do
With the solidarity
Amongst women

Read More

My Mother’s Hair by Jonathan Chibuike Ukah (United Kingdom)

12/3/2023

 
When the soft wind brushes my face,
I watch it settle on my mother's hair,
rustles it, blows up a handful
before creating a tremulous hair quake;
My mother’s right-hand hits her neck,
scrapes through her bunch of hair,
grabs a sheath between her fingers,
sinking her short fingernails into them,
before she stares at me with a smile.
I watch her with thickening tears,
how she sobs when she asks my father
permission to visit the local hairdresser.

Read More

A Glimpse by Reena Choudhary (India)

12/3/2023

 
In fleeting moments, beauty gleams,
            A glimpse of dreams, like whispered streams.
A fleeting touch of nature's art,
            A symphony that fills the heart.

A sunbeam dancing through the trees,
            Unveiling life with graceful ease.
The world revealed in shades so fine,
            A glimpse of the divine design.

Eyes meet eyes in a crowded place,
            A fleeting smile, a hint of grace.
Connections made in fleeting chance,
            ​A dance of souls in life's expanse.

Read More
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