...

january 2016

period

...
period
www.period.ink / @periodlit

Contents
Colleen Louise Barry

6
poetry & illustrations

Sharon heit
portrait photographer
I want to juxtapose
vulnerability and strength. But
most of all, I just dont want to
hide anymore.

24

16

Michelle Kingdom
embroidery artist
The content of my work is an
exploration of private, even
secret, thoughts, fears, hopes
and dreams.

Shaf inur Shaf in

editor of Prachya Review,
poet

I believe women are born with

extraordinary power and strength in
them.

33

Working Women,
Not By Choice
Haeryun Kang

What feminism means to

women working in Seouls
oldest marketplace

Poetry
Hilde Weisert
Mercy
A Person

Prerna Bakshi

To Love is to Lose Onself!

42

Laura L. Washburn
Developing

from
the editor
Welcome to the first issue of
Period magazine!

The future will be written and

imagined by women. And it
Period is a magazine of art & will not be given to us, but
literature for female-identified ours to take - and we will.
voices. We want to give a
The unananimous uprising
platform for women - all
of female voices in recent
women - to showcase the
years, aided and encouraged
myriad of ways we express
by the support, connections
ourselves. Art and literature
and common experiences we
has, for too long, been
share through the internet, has
dominated by men, who
cried out with a single voice:
have systematically silenced
we will no longer be silent, nor
or misrepresented female
doubt our own experiences,
expressions.
nor participate in devaluing
our lives. It is our goal to
This is a labor of love for me
strengthen these voices and
and I have been thrilled to
provide a place of solidarity.
connect with talented and
To say the things we have been
creative women from around told are unacceptable to say. To
the world. I was inspired to
share the stories we have been
create the magazine by the
told to keep to ourselves. To
expat community here in
recognize ourselves as human,
Korea, where I feel fortunate
with all our scars and flaws. To
to be surrounded by powerful be respected for our strengths
women, and have been
and forgiven our failings.
overwhelmed by the positive And finally, to see ourselves
support the concept has
as consequential in the
received so far.
human narrative, to recognize
ourselves represented in art
and literature. - Myra Pearson

Colleen Louise Barry

poet & illustrator
seattle

When did you begin to

Where do you find
express yourself creatively? inspiration?
In first grade at Catholic school
we had an hour a day to make
art. I was a very serious child and
I fully immersed myself in the
worlds I invented. During one of
these art hours, I remember very
distinctly, getting a message from
some kind of energy or some kind
of voice on the other side. My
mother came to pick me up early,
and when she saw me, I said that
I knew my Great Grandfather
had died. She said yes, he had,
and she took me home to be with
our family. It was a kind of classic
epiphany moment from a great
literary work or something -thats how it felt looking back at it
now. Im always trying to get there
again, so I can investigate what
that moment was, and to be inside
of something so mysterious.
6

The most inspiring thing to

me is being aware, stopping to
notice, whats right in front of
me. I like to try to see things
from a lot of angles and to really
study something. Im inspired
by women who are wise and
creative. I have really been loving
to surround myself with giant
art books, a lot of paintings, and
to just look through them all at
random.
Im from Upstate NY. My family
once lived in an old schoolhouse
with a giant fireplace and school
supplies from the 40s stashed in
the attic. I remember my parents
bedroom doors slid apart from
each other to open. There was a
giant lilac tree in the backyard
that I would crawl under to

make potions, i.e. mash a bunch

of dandelion petals together with
dirt and apple juice. We had a
small pool with a diving board
that tadpoles hatched on top of
one summer, consequently, we got
garter snakes, and I and I caught
them in a white bucket. Sap was
all over the place.

What projects are you

currently working on?

wallofears.com

I am also in the process of starting

Im in Seattle now because its wet my own arts collective and
and full of creative people. I love press, called Mount Analogue.
Mount Analogue will be focused
so many people in this city. Im
here to make art and to teach art on making conceptual and
experimental poetics projects
and to be close to nature.
accessible to a large audience.
I have a lot going on, which I
love. I like to work in a lot of
different ways and mediums. I
have a manuscript of poems that
Im finishing. I also have a bunch
of comics-poems which I want to
collect into something bigger, like
a book.
In January, a chapbook of poems
and drawings that I made on
stolen paint sample cards from
Home Depot is going to be
coming out from dancing girl
press, packaged like game cards.

The first Mount Analogue project

is Conversations with Women. I
will collaborate with one femaleidentified artist for a season on a
single, original project. The final
product will be limited-produced
by Mount Analogue no matter its
final form, whether it be cassette
tape, book, digital, natural, or
sculptural.
Im also learning to play the
theremin with my amazing
boyfriends amazing band: Wall
of Ears.

What challenges have you faced as an artist?

Being an artist is, I think, very difficult, in a lot of ways. When youre
an artist, the struggles of your life are going to be exploited and
dominate. It is a part of an artist that you cant really teach someone,
you either have it or you dont. I mean the ability to deal with it and to
keep going. There is so much risk and instability involved. But being
in a strong community is the answer to so much of it, and being able
to see how everything alive can be good and is precious.
colleenlouisebarry.com / @colleenlouisebarry

10

11

12

13

EVERYWHERE IN THE DESERT

IS THE HEART OF THE DESERT
by Colleen Louise Barry

driving through West Texas the sky

unfucked me all over this
sort of thing
small dramas play out
tarantulas move slow
as if recently spun
hairs move
with rare breezes
across sand
my blood surges I think
it smells like pion now
we are rolling
cigarettes at the table top
mesas get smoked by women
I have known projected
violently hugely from gods eye
you can really feel the truth
of that here: god only has one eye
rusted in the socket
the desert is proof
god is not a man
whats a dick anyway
but something you stick inside me
what is the desert but a palate
for a broader wilderness
the horizon is the length of the world
and then it is longer
I measure everything
against it so our bodies I think
14

are straight
actually lean crooked
its enough to bathe in
the endlessness
to plow through it
with a swimmers dumb grace
the desert and I have
no surprises
we have empty space
my epiphany is an acceptance
I plan on loving more
one day
although hopefully longer
its just thats how
it is usually said
Im a woman like a desert
in the masculine noon
a black buzzard flies
overhead he is almost to god
blocking out the sun

15

Sharon Heit
photographer
Seoul

Sharon Heit is a film

photographer from Chicago
who relocated to Seoul in
2013. She began as a freelance
photographer before discovering
her voice through film in 2014.
Prolific and passionate, Heits
list of accomplishments since
that time include being featured
in the webzine Girls on Film
and Lomography Magazine in
addition to showing her work at
16

Gallery M in Seoul last summer

for the self-portrait exhibition
Mirror Mirror.
Before transitioning to film
photography, Sharon Heit shot
in digital format. She began
shooting in film after visiting a
friend in San Francisco. She was
shooting on a Holga and I was
intrigued by this idea of
lo-fi, Heit explained in an

interview with Lomography

Magazine. Everyone is searching
for the clearest images (in
everything, not just photos),
but I loved the moodiness in
Lomography. I bought a Diana
F+ but it took me a really long
time to get the hang of it. Ive just
started shooting 120mm again
about six months ago. Ive learned
a lot over that time.
Heits work explores the private
and personal narratives of
young women with a candor
that is historically lacking in
androcentric perceptions of the
female form. Her work falls
into a modern aesthetic that
has exploded in recent years,
primarily focused on women
calmly inhabiting spaces as they
are, without an expectation to
perform for the viewer.

Every portrait I
shoot is a photo of
me.

Her nude portraits of women do

not assert sexualization onto her
models, but present the women
as they are, at ease in their bodies.
Often, they seem to be casually
lingering in bed or dangling their
legs over a chair, exuding comfort
and calm confidence. Though
she shoots models who are,
admittedly, young and beautiful,
they are not existing for the
pleasure of the viewer.
Currently, she has been shooting
for Luna Lia, a luxury bohemian
lingerie startup by Caroline
Bryan.

How did you make

the transition into film
photography?
The transition happened almost
by accident. Indisposable
Concept was getting huge then,
and my partner at the time and I
decided to submit one roll every
month for the next 6 months. I
had such a great time with it, I
had my Olympus OM-1n shipped
to me. I received a few cameras
as gifts (a point and shoot
Olympus XA2, a Lomography
Sprocket Rocket). I got another
17

Diana F+ to start experimenting

with. The manual Olympus and
the Diana F+ are my cameras of
choice now.

specific and personal reason for

shooting female portraits. I want
to juxtapose vulnerability and
strength. But most of all, I just
dont want to hide anymore.

When you are planning a

shoot, how do you decide What inspires you?
on your settings?

My favorite photographer and

the reason I shoot portraits is
Mary Ellen Mark. My real life
inspiration and the reason I
figured out how to say what I
want is Andy Faulk. The people
in my life who
are doing the
things they
love. The
people in
my life that
are beautiful
human beings.
The beauty in
lunalialingerie.com
the world.

I dont. I book a studio and see

what happens. I dont have these
ideas of images I want to force
the models into. I just want to
capture them.
Of course,
once you get
there, you have
to have some
direction, but
I like things
to happen
naturally.

Your work is
often solemn. What do
you try to convey to the
viewer, and why do you
primarily shoot portraits
of women?

Every portrait I shoot is a photo

of me. Its another woman, yes.
But its me in that expression, its
me in that mood. I have a very
18

What obstacles have you

had to overcome while
defining your voice?
That as a woman trying to fight
the sexualization of women, that
I am contributing to it. That
my message is misunderstood
because it is so personal to me.

That because Im female models will pose for me for no reason other
than because Im female. That I want every portrait I take to feel like
liberation, but it all depends on the viewers perception, not mine.
sharonheit.com / @jungxhana

19

20

21

22

23

SMALL
KINGDOMS
the embroidery art of Michelle Kingdom
24

Michelle Kingdom is a selftaught embroidery artist

creating figurative narratives
in thread. She was born and
raised in Los Angeles and
studied drawing and painting
at UCLA. Never fully satisfied
with traditional mediums,
she discovered embroidery
soon after graduating and has
displayed her work in many
galleries nationally and private
collections.

When questioned by Feeling

Stitchy about her decision to
work in small scale images,
Kingdom replied, The content
of my work is an exploration
of private, even secret,
thoughts, fears, hopes and
dreams. This inner world feels
best represented in an intimate
way. Working on a small scale
portrays the fragility and
vulnerability I prefer, more like
a whisper rather than a shout.

Kingdom first learned how

to stitch from an old copy
of the 1970s book Readers
Digest Guide to Needlework
and creates her work on a
small scale. Her imagery
often includes literary
references from writers such
as Virginia Woolf, Hans
Christian Andersen, Leo
Tolstoy and Carson McCullers,
and visualizes concepts like
coming of age, solitude, denial,
friendship, and male-female
power dynamics.

What are the challenges

of working in textiles, and
how do they differ from
other visual mediums,
such as painting or
drawing?
For me, the stitching process
has always been more akin to
drawing with thread rather
than traditional embroidery.
That being said, there are
significant differences and it is
never my intention to create
the illusion of a drawing or
painting. Embroidery is a
strangely rigid yet delicate
25

medium. The process is slow

and measured, unlike the rapid
fluidity of other art mediums.
Marks are inherently straight,
colors are predetermined,
grounds require significant
preparation and care,
historical technique dictates
overbearing rules from start
to finish. Embroidery can be
filled with limitations, but it
also has tremendous potential
for experimentation.
Your work seems both
figurative and narrative.
At times they resemble
still scenes from a movie
or book. How do you
plan your images? Do you
usually have a concept or
story in mind?
Typically I do have a vague
story or inspiration in mind,
but it is never complete or
resolved. I keep all sorts of
sketches, photographs, notes
and quotes on hand, and pull
from numerous sources for a
single piece. Narratives begin
26

to form like a collage but they

continue to be developed
throughout the stitching
process. New elements are
incorporated right up to the
very end.
Can you tell me about the
process of defining your
voice as an artist, and
how your embroideries
have progressed since
you first began working
with fabric?
My work has evolved
significantly over the years.
I began stitching right out of
college but didnt feel I had
much to say. At that time I
stitched strange nocturnal
dreams. I embroidered
sporadically for many years
but it was the process of living
and maturity that would define
my artistic voice. I still stitch
dreams but not literal dreams
that happen while asleep. Now
I try to stitch a lucid dream
world, for better or worse.
Even though Ive been

embroidering for many

years, Ive only been showing
them publicly since 2014,
which has changed my work
as well. While the work is
still very personal, figures
and narratives have become
broader and more universal.
Embroidery is historically
a gendered art form,
thought of as a womans
craft, and your images
depict many elements of
the female experience.
Do you attempt to
convey a womans
experience?
Most of my work is a
reflection of my own personal
experiences. I am mindful
of how others may interpret
my use of female characters
but I am not speaking for
all women or their own
unique experiences. I try to
delve deeply, specifically and
symbolically into issues that
genuinely resonate with me on
a visceral level. It is my hope

that I am not alone, and that

others might care about them
too.
In general, what are some
reactions you have had to
your work?
Ive been overwhelmed by
support and encouragement
the last few years. A lot of
people seem to be personally
touched by the work, which
really is all that I could have
hoped for. Some people do
interpret my work differently
than I do but as an artist, it
only enriches the experience.
Which piece is your
personal favorite?
Ive been asked this question
before and it is a tough one,
like picking your favorite
child. Truly I dont have one
favorite, as each feels like a
fragment of a larger piece to
me. Most of my work is now in
other peoples collections and
there are two that I miss a lot
27

at the moment: The years fell and grew into vines from 2014
and Duties of Gossamer from 2015.
What are some projects you are currently working
on, and what do you have planned for 2016?
I will be having a feature show next fall in Santa Monica and
have several other early stage proposals brewing. Mostly I plan
on stitching... lots and lots of stitching.

28

The Years Fell and Grew Into Vines

29

The World Will Continue Without Us

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice
(above)

Her Horizon Seemed to Her Limitless

(below)

michellekingdom.com

30

31

Only women can

give
to each other
a new sense of self.
- The Woman Identified Woman
1970

Shafinur Shafin
poet & editor
Bangladesh

A new literary magazine, Prachya

Review, has emerged in Bangladesh.
Creator and poet Shafinur Shafin shares
a poem and talks about growing up as a
woman in a Muslim society.

I have seen how womens talents have been treated as worthless and
lesser. I have seen many girls I knew who were extraordinarily talented
but were not able to use their talent because of obstacles put in place by
society.
At first we planned to bring
out an online magazine only
for Bangladeshi writers to
encourage their English
It was the beginning of 2015. My
writings. But later on we
friend Dalton and I made a plan
changed our minds and
to bring out a new English literary
considered that we should
magazine from Bangladesh. We
not confine the space
wanted to do something different.
of the magazine to only
Because both of us wrote in Bengali
Bangladeshis.
as well as in English, we realized that
there was no platform in Bangladesh
We should open the door for
for the writers and poets who write
the writers, poets, and artists
in English. But they are talented,
from all around the world.
and their talent needs to be shown
Though the languages of
to the rest of the world as well.
literature might be different
from country to country or
How did you begin the
Prachya Review?

33

place to place, the creative

minds are same. They can
understand literature and art
no matter what the language.
We wanted to create the same
platform for the creative minds
elsewhere - where they will
not feel they are from different
nations.
I spoke with my
Greek friend
Nikitash about
the idea of the
webzine and he
introduced me to
his friend Manos
who is a wellknown young
poet in Greece.
We wanted one
more person, so I thought
of Anika. I was mesmerized
with the short story written by
Anika. I think she is the most
talented Bangladeshi writer
right now. Its so difficult to
make her satisfied because she
is very picky about writing.
So I thought she would be the
best choice for prose editor.
34

There is a need for a sharp eye

with cruel fingers to reject the
bad eggs.
So the three of us, Manos,
Anika and I started working
on collecting writings from
relatively unknown writers
and poets. I contacted
everyone I knew.
The first issue of
our webzine came
out in September
2015. That is the
beginning of our
Prachya Review,
which believes
in the freedom
of thought
and considers
literature and
art to be without
borders.
What personal projects,
aside from the webzine,
are you currently working
on?
I am writing a fiction novel
about the journey of a girl who
belongs to a small town,

a half-conservative society
and a middle class family.
Its all about her thoughts,
surroundings and philosophy
of life, her relationships with
others and how life changed
for her when she moved to
another country. She is coping
with the transition of moving
from the majority community
to the minority community.
The plot is built up from the
movement of Shahbagh when
the young generation came out
in the street to demand justice
for war criminals. I want to
keep the rest of the story for
the readers.

complications of life in
an easy language. I was
especially affected by Crime
and Punishment and The
Unbearable Lightness of Being.
When I become sad or I want
to take shelter in poetry, I
read Sylvia Plath. I feel her
soul burning inside her words,
inside me. Whenever I read
her poetry, I feel she has
written my thoughts in her
page already. These writers are
my inspiration in every sense.
When did you first begin
writing?

When I began working on my

BA in English in Chittagong
University. At that time I
became a fan of English
I have been a bookworm since poetry. The arts faculty was
my childhood. There are so
one of the hubs of literature
many writers whom I would
and arts in Chittagong city.
like to mention as my most
The seven or eight small tea
favorites- Milan Kundera,
shops which we called all
Dostoyevsky, and Sylvia
together jhupri were the
Plath. I like Dostoyevskey and common gathering places
Kundera because they depict for the young artists, poets,
the human psychology and
politicians etc. It was like
Who are some of your
favorite writers?

35

a picture where you would

find all in one tea stall,
some student leaders
(mostly leftists or Marxists)
discussing a movement
in a study circle, writing
banners; and in another teastall you would find some
young guys sketching in
their drawing books while
taking tea, some busy with
flirting, some singing, some
listening to poetry or having
a philosophical discussion. In
a word, it was an intellectual
chaos in jhupri. They chatted,
gossiped and shared their
thoughts and their works
with each other. It was
studying literature and being
surrounded by crazy artists
or poets from the facultys
jhupri that inspired me to start
writing.

has a lot of friends who are

poets, artists and editors. They
visited often at our home. My
brother showed one of them
my diary where I kept my
poems and he took two poems
to publish in his magazine.
When I saw my poems
published, the first thing that
came to my mind was Oh my
god! I can write and that also
can be published! It inspired
me to keep writing. From last
two years, I have been writing
in English, as well as in Bangla.
What challenges have you
had to overcome?

My family is a bit conservative,

but they encouraged me to
make a habit of reading. So
when they learned about my
interest in writing, they were
very supportive, but placed
some restrictions on me about
I wrote my first poem in
Bangla that time, but I did not mingling with other poets.
Also, some male poets in our
show it to anyone. Later on,
my elder brother noticed that community thought that I was
I was writing poetry. My elder getting more attention because
brother is a translator and he of my gender, not for my
36

poetic talent. I think this

is a typical attitude toward
female poets. In spite of all
this, the majority of reactions
Ive experienced have been
poisitive. When Anika and I
started working together, my
friend told me, Its impossible
for two women to work in the
same place for very long! So
I want to prove people wrong
about this misconception.
What is your relationship
to feminism? What does
it mean to you, and
how does it shape your
writing?
I come from a halfconservative society where
people cant decide what
they should give preference
to more: their religion over
culture or their culture over
religion. There is always a
dilemma between these two. It
is a society where women are
considered inferior and they
are not supported so much in
creative works. In this society,

women are often perceived to

be inferior. Sometimes women
can also be the enemy of other
women because of patriarchal
norms.
I was born in a Muslim family.
Muslims are the majority of
the population in Bangladesh,
so in that sense I should have
a feeling of belonging in the
majority. But as a woman I
am always a minority in my
inherited religious identity. So
I dont believe in any religion.
Women dont have any religion
truly.
I have seen how womens
talents have been treated
as worthless and lesser. I
have seen many girls I knew
who were extraordinarily
talented but were not able
to use their talent because
of obstacles put in place by
society. People dont want to
give compliments to womens
efforts (in the creative sector),
rather they say women get
preference because of their
37

gender not for their talent. As

if all talents are produced in
the sexual organ, not in the
head! And I really think this
is the situation for women in
every country. I dont feel our
world has matured yet to think
beyond gender identity.
I am also part of this immature
world and I dont have any
shame to say that I am a
little bit partial to women. I
believe women are born with
extraordinary power and
strength in them. I always
adore female talent more
than a male talent. I feel that
women are exceptionally
talented and more intelligent
than men. I feel we are the
loneliest creatures in the
world. To me feminism is
not only to celebrate our
womanhood but to prove
that our efforts as humans are
worthwhile. I do not deny that
my feminism influences my
writing, but this is not all there
is to my writing. My life and
the people and things around
38

shape my thought and writing

the most.
Shafinur Shafin is a poet and
editor for the Prachya Review.
prachyareview.com
To me feminism is
not only to celebrate
our womanhood but
to prove that our
efforts as humans are
worthwhile.

I Want to Write My Fear

by Shafinur Shafin
I want to write my fear tonight
Ill not talk about
my fear of the thunderbolt
when it sparkles
and draws uncanny
violet lines on
the blackish sky
Ill not talk of
the loud noise
that makes me shrink
to myself
I will not depict my fear
of getting frozen
sensing no love
between our sweat
I wont talk of the fear
of your return,
you who I once named
spider
I wont even talk of
the worst of my fears
of being raped
in a world
39

where women are rated

by their age,
religion, caste
and people
make fun of
those things freely so, you are Muslim,
I have every right
to rape you,
even if I were to drag you
out of the grave.
Or,
if I happen to be
a Hindu girl,
my mom will ask
the rapist to go slow,
and one by one
so I at least
do not succumb!
Ill not talk about my fear
to live
to leave
I will not.
Trust me.

40

Tonight
Ill talk about
the overhung
spider web
in my wash room
how I feel so annoyed
of having a shower
before its eight eyes
wide open.

41

Working Women,
Not By Choice
what feminism means to women
struggling to get by in Seouls
oldest marketplace

Haeryun Kang

42

What do concepts like feminism and identity mean

to the aging merchants in Namdaemun, one of the
oldest marketplaces in Seoul? For women who work,
not by choice but by necessity, these concepts are
a luxury they wish they had time and freedom to
consider.
Approximately 80% of the
50,000 merchants working
at Namdaemun Market are
women. Extreme poverty after
the Korean War in the early
fifties forced women to the
marketplace, because there
werent viable alternatives
for women to make money
(besides prostitution) -- an
enduring reality for many
elderly women at Namdaemun
today.
81-year-old Jo Hye-ok has
been selling jokbal, or pig-feet,
eleven hours a day for the past
twenty years. Before that? Ive
done all sorts of work. I sold
clothes, vegetables, fruits, and
even worked at a restaurant.
Big events in life imposed
themselves on her.

Liberation from Japanese

colonialism happened when
she was eleven; the Korean
War at sixteen; marriage at
nineteen. It was all a mess.
My parents said its hard for
a man to take me if another
mess breaks out. So they sent
me off to marriage.

Woman is woman, whats

there to think about. Jo
Halmoni (grandma) has a
meticulous memory, able to
cite exactly how old she was
during the historical events of
her life.

43

But its hard

to get her
to elaborate
on ideas
concerning
her female
identity.
Ive never
thought
This is my loneliness ring. Its a ring for
about it.
myself.
If I could choose the kind
of woman Id like to be, Id
be a man, says 68-year-old
Yoon Yeon-ja, mother of
four children and even more
grandchildren. Women made
too many sacrifices for the
family. Its not like that for
modern women, but girls over
sixty lived only for their family
and children. I dont like being
a woman.

two or three
can live
comfortably.
But the rest
of us have to
work.

The aging Namdaemun

merchants didnt have
radical notions of femininity.
Their answers about what it
means to be a woman were
predictable and ordinary:
family, children, sacrifice and
resignation.

But then, feminism isnt just

about women who make
a difference in the world;
all those shining Sheryl
Yoon Halmoni owns Mamas Sandbergs and Simone de
Banchan, offering ready-to-go Beauvoirs. Its also about
side dishes that are pickled and those who made the most
fermented. She works twelve predictable, ordinary choices
hours every day. I want to
and seeing (without pointing
quit and travel comfortably.
fingers first) why they had to,
You know, out of ten fingers, whether they had to.
44

Many elderly women dress

head to toe in splashes of
colors and patterns (often
flowery). The clothes are like
a passport stamped on the
middle-aged to senior Korean
woman, recognizable as
Korean ajumma anywhere in
the world.

too old. Its all over. My life is

over. She laughs.

She says women are like

flowers. Old or young, every
woman wants to look pretty.
Thats why even halmonis
continue to buy pretty clothes.
Of course, I
wouldnt wear
Old women
clothes these
choose
halmonis
this type
think are
of clothing
pretty (and
to look less
Id refrain
dead, says
from calling
68-year-old Lee Sun-myoung, women flowers), but maybe
owner of a clothing store
this cliched symbol of
thats the size of a small office delicate vulnerability is more
cubicle. They seek the colorful meaningful to her because
because they look older in dark her hands are much tougher
stuff. Grandmothers want to
than mine, with heavier
look pretty too.
burdens of suffering borne out
of a rougher era I cant quite
Lee Halmoni, a Namdaemun understand.
merchant for over 40 years,
says she started selling clothes
to eat and survive. I wish I
could have been a cool career Haeryun Kang is a freelance
woman, a fashion designer
journalist. She currently writes
aiming for big things. Now Im for NPR Seoul.
45

Women made too many sacrifices for the family. Its not like
that for modern women, but girls over sixty lived only for their
family and children. I dont like being a woman.
Yoon Yeon-ja

46

Mercy
Hilde Weisert
My chests a knothole and my arms a stick.
I creak and sigh like something on a hill.
No thats my right side, left is human still
So Im half tree, half me; half well, half sick.
What was it Daphne did? Did I do half?
It wasnt love I ran from yet the birds
I watch approach me almost seem to laugh
as if they knew the lies Ive told, the words
I always thought I meant. Ah the human
side keeps digging, searching for a curse,
or something in the life, the shadow looming
in a thousand craven acts. Have mercy,
says the tree, as if it knows this hill
is not a judgment, but a place to rest;
as if two mismatched halves could make me whole,
and sun and rain and earth could make me blessed.

47

A Person
Hilde Weisert
Now a whale is one, and an ape;
an elephant and a parrot,
in our modern, post-anthropocentric view.
In the last century, they werent,
and neither was the woman
who pieced together jigsaw scenes
by the hour, picking up and putting down
her cigarette. When I came home
from school to find her dressed
not in a robe, but in her charcoal suit
and pumps, handbag packed, I knew
adventure was in store. Climbing
into the car, slamming our doors,
off we drove to the Wisconsin Grill
where we ordered two hamburger steaks
sogging the white bread with their bloody juice,
and a Coke for me, and for her a drink
that she would lift slowly, swirl
the gin and vermouth, and sip from a long thirst.
I knew what shed say, a sentence
I think of now, when those who swim,
48

lumber, or fly are said to be

what she only wanted to feel like
at four oclock, on certain secret afternoons.

...
Hilde Weiserts works have appeared in The Cincinnati Review,
Cortland Review, Prairie Schooner, Southern Poetry Review,
The Sun, Ms, among others. Finding Wilfred Owen Again was
winner of the 2008 Lois Cranston Poetry Prize, Winter 2009
in CALYX and Summer 2009 in the Wilfred Owen Journal.
Weisert was a 2009 Fellow at the Virginia Center for the
Creative Arts and am co-editor of the 2012 anthology Animal
Companions, Animal Doctors, Animal People: poems, essays,
and stories on our essential connections.

49

To Love is to Lose Oneself!

Prerna Bakshi

Said my uncle
almost with no sense of irony,
as it left me muttering to myself:
unless youre a man!
For my Auntie
love followed a very predictable pattern.
Lovelessness transformed into marriage,
marriage into somewhat of a losing streak,
the last name was (as is usually) among the first to go.
The name we carried all our lives,
one of the first things we learnt to write,
the name that was called in the classroom
every time the teacher took the attendance, and
we replied: Yes! Present!
as our friends tried to distract us, tease us, make us giggle.
The name we would use
year after year,
paper after paper,
on our examination sheets,
the name wed be desperate
to find on the school board
written next to pass, every time the results came out and
wed breathe a sigh of relief.
The name mentioned in our
report cards, certificates, degrees
once we graduated,
the name we couldnt wait
50

to show our parents

for we knew that was as close as
they were ever going to get
to feel as if it was they who graduated
because life failed them long ago.
The name that filled their eyes
with tears of joy and pride.
All of this and
all that it represented
is the first to go.
Overnight the house we called our own
turns into just another guesthouse,
reminding us our times up
to pack our bags and go,
reminding us as if
we overstayed our welcome,
though, its owner always knew
(and never let us forget)
we were not the permanent kind anyway.
We could not afford the house, and
the house could not afford us,
the home we grew up in
is the next to go.
From what were allowed to cook,
to what were allowed to wear
to how long (if at all) can we have a working life
to how many friends can we keep in our private lives.
All these questions queue up in line,
autonomy is the next to go.
51

Why must we lose ourselves,

lose who we are,
just to be deemed worthy
of being loved?
If whats known as love
necessitates one to lose, the one
who has always lost,
as a precondition,
as a prerequisite,
then this game has already
chosen its winner
before it even began.
To love is to gain,
not to lose,
least of all oneself.

...
Prerna Bakshi is a sociolinguist, writer, translator and activist
of Indian origin, presently based in Macao. Her work has
been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has been published
widely, most recently in Red Wedge Magazine, Off the Coast,
Wilderness House Literary Review, Kabul Press, Peril magazine:
Asian-Australian Arts & Culture and Wordgathering: A Journal
of Disability Poetry and Literature. Her full-length poetry
collection, Burnt Rotis, With Love, recently long-listed for the
Erbacce-Press Poetry Award in the UK, is forthcoming from
Les ditions du Zaporogue (Denmark) later this year.
52

Developing
Laura L. Washburn
in response to Man Ray
The womans made over into a violin,
her head wrapped in a scarf, tight
like a bowl. This instrument
makes no music. She is another art,
grains and shades of white on black.
These grains dont feed. They dont
mature--they are like small boys,
who all their lives suck mother
from women, wanting to be fed.
This woman is like the masked one,
and the one whose buttocks
are shown to resemble shellfish
or eggs--paled, fantastic, still.
On the new farms, milking machines
pull silver milk from rows of cows.
All boys understand this yanking.
This woman is what they want her to be,
overexposed. They learn about the hand
on the neck, and about pushing,
about an objects beauty. Their hands
pull the violins white strings. Her head,
wrapped into a bowl, is unused.
Here, flour and yeast wont rise.
No lips, breasts, music, or bread,
only men closed in a red-lit room,
53

pictures on wet paper, white flesh,

imagination cold as concrete,
this woman stiff and still
and may as well be dead.

...
Laura Lee Washburn is the Director of Creative Writing at
Pittsburg State University in Kansas, and the author of This
Good Warm Place: 10th Anniversary Expanded Edition (March
Street) and Watching the Contortionists (Palanquin Chapbook
Prize). Her poetry has appeared in such journals as Cavalier
Literary Couture, Carolina Quarterly, Ninth Letter, The Sun,
Red Rock Review, and Valparaiso Review. Born in Virginia
Beach, Virginia, she has also lived and worked in Arizona and
in Missouri. She is married to the writer Roland Sodowsky,
and is one of the founders and the Co-President of the Board
of SEK Women Helping Women.
Originally published in Watching the Contortionists, Palanquin
Press, U SC-Aiken.

54

Ones life has value so long

as one attributes value
to the life of others,
by means of love,
friendship, indignation
and compassion.
- Simone de Beauvoir

...
period
WOMEN IN ART

www.period.ink / @periodlit