As she endeavors to write her childhood memoir through haibun and haiga, psychic artist Melanie Alberts keeps sane by painting, fermenting all manner of food and drink, and enjoying the nature and kitsch of East Austin, Texas.
Links to Melanie’s haiga gallery and socials; she would be grateful to follow you, too.
https://bsky.app/profile/melaniealberts.bsky.social
https://www.instagram.com/clair.circles.spirit.art/
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Dusk
My brother says if you stare long enough in the mirror, your face will turn into the devil’s face. I push a kitchen chair to the hallway mirror, climb up, and stare into the dark circle of my eyes. I try not to blink. What if the devil shows up today?
I’m ready. I see brown eyes, brown hair, bangs that my mother cuts with sewing scissors I’m not allowed to touch. My mouth opens wide because the devil has fangs which are the best for biting and breaking through.
After a while I have to close my mouth and blink. Like Dad says, nothing works in this house.
I push the chair back to the kitchen table so I can stand on it to reach the sugar bowl. Mom’s snoring on the couch so I eat sugar until I’m full. Some spills over the table. I wiggle my finger across the shiny spill, lick the spoon, and put it back in the drawer so no one could tell I was there.
hidden sun
an afternoon’s
long slant
Drifting Sands, Issue 18 (November, 2022)
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rare rain—
a snail stretches
in ecstasy
Black & White Haiga/Haisha (28 August 2022)
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staring past
unfamiliar stars—
gossip magazines
Pulse—Voices from the Heart of Medicine (28 July 2023)
Haiku Poet Word Search 
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