Stories etched on wrists

By Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad

The timer on the oven buzzes
cupcakes for her child’s play date
spring with the aroma of almonds
the mitten on her hand slips
wrist brushing against grill
brief contact scorching a bracelet of red

 

an arc of flesh sizzles and rises
stinging around the edges
a charred and angry bruise
blisters bubbling in pods
a tingling of fluid and burning

 

a glob of liniment soothes the welt
one of many such grainy half moons
seared on the smooth ochre
of her right wrist
unlikely badges of reinvention
marks of a contented domesticity

 

her left wrist watches mutely
lined with furrows of its own
macabre prints of buried years
glinting in the kitchen spotlight
tell-tale lacerations now healed
the closure of silver slivers.

 

Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad is a Sydney artist, poet, and pianist, of Indian heritage. She holds a Masters in English, and is a member of the North Shore poetry Project, and Authora Australis. Her recent works have been published in numerous print and online literary journals and anthologies including ActiveMuse, The Pangolin Review, and Poetica Review, and are forthcoming in Unlost Journal, Ethel Zine, Otoliths, and elsewhere.