The birth mark

Barsha Kumari

“The Lady with a Mirror.” Raja Ravi Varma.

I've a birth-mark
on my face.
It's brown
and acts like
an odd phenomenon.
At times,
I hear the mirror
call my mark
Ugly.
I reckon, then,
that yes,
the mark is ugly.

On some days
I feel pity
for the mark,
so I become deaf
to the mirror’s voice.
But on other days
the pain of the mark
enshrouds me
and I feel
every inch of my existence
--Ugly.  

My mother, 
who has known this mark
since my life’s first season,
says:
"Some days, the clouds are chaotic, 
and the vast sky is life-threatening. 
Other days, the clouds are crazy,
and the unending sky is unapologetically white. 
Some days, 
the mark is light.
Other days,
it is dark,
but the universe is always beautiful
and existing.”  

I ask to my mother, 
"What is beautiful, 
if not the core of ugly?" 

Barsha Kumari is an Indian by nationality and a student at Delhi University doing her Master's in History. Writing is healing for her. She writes because she feels like words have a deepening relationship with her.