A body barely breathed
Inhale
A lizard lands
Exhale
His eyes give fire
No trust
No truth
A man
A “friend”
A lizard
Taste of alcohol
Watery and numbing
As fire logs
Slowly crumble
Friends and laughter start to silence
Alone
A young and eager heart
To fit in and be seen
Eighteen?
Seventeen?
Teen. teen. Teen.

Inhale
A lizard lies
Exhale
Don’t trust your eyes
They are lying
They are looking down
Now
Judgments fade
Taste of smoke from forest logs
Slowly crumble
A sad and confused heart leaps forward
Why can’t I help myself?
Why me?

A body barely breathed
Inhale
A lizard leaps
Exhale
His hands pick
and pull
and pry
at me
Scales fall in me
On me
Limp body parts enter me
Exhale
A body barely breathed

-Jennifer Sakarian

Jennifer Belair Sakarian is a mixed media visual artist and writer. Her writings work in tandem to her visual art and act as cathartic experiences. Much of her poetry, prose and short stories create conversations around ideas behind femininity, the natural world, and mental health. Through her writings, she aims to expose the fluidity of stream of conscious thought patterns and the innate complexity of identity all the while having a good laugh...or not. She will be independently publishing her first book which will feature poems and illustrations this coming March titled, "I'm okay, okay?"

Raised and educated in the Midwest, she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Printmaking and Art History from Siena Heights University in Adrian, Michigan and her Master of Fine Arts in Printmaking from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan where she is currently a teaching assistant in the Printmaking Department.