Commemorative Picture With an American Actor
By Tamiko Dooley
somewhere there’s a photo of me on George Hamilton’s knee
you remember him?
(orange perma-tan and crystal white teeth)
my parents spotted him in the airport lounge
I’m too old, really, to be sitting on a chino lap
(not least a stranger’s)
but he’s famous, so
come on, it’s just a quick photo
I look past his well-rehearsed, smiling eyes into my own:
hunted, confused, anxious
This picture doesn’t commemorate meeting a celebrity.
It records having my small body forced onto a man’s.
Growing Up
By Tamiko Dooley
will you take
she’s sick
whatever you, don’t
(hello little)
to deliver these
(knock knock)
what big eyes you
big ears you
teeth you
*SCREAMS*
(crescendo)…………….AND THE MALE SAVIOUR
axe … entrails …blood because BLOOD = growth & death
(THE END, NIGHT night)
(hello little)
Tamiko read Latin and French at New College, Oxford. Previous publications include: “SHIMA (Islands)” (Alien Buddha Press, 2022), “Seasons of Love Around the Rising Sun” (Broken Sleep Books, 2023), “The Japanese House” (Cephalo Press, 2023) and “Gakusei (The Schoolgirl)” (Audience Askew, 2024). She was the winner of the BBC Radio 3 carol competition 2021, and her poem “Yurushi” was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 as their Friday poem in 2023.
Artwork Source: “Having wings is happiness,” Irina Tall
Artist Statement: I am inspired by fairy tales and myths… My favorite character is the Siren, but for me she has a particularly personal context of freedom. A bird with a human face that can fly over any wall… This is a symbol of freedom! Probably my story is a little confusing… But I tried to tell what I wanted to express…
Materials: ink, paper
Size: 10×15 cm
Year: 2023
Irina Tall (Novikova) is an artist, graphic artist, illustrator. She graduated from the State Academy of Slavic Cultures with a degree in art, and also has a bachelor’s degree in design. The first personal exhibition “My soul is like a wild hawk” (2002) was held in the museum of Maxim Bagdanovich. In her works, she raises themes of ecology, in 2005 she devoted a series of works to the Chernobyl disaster, draws on anti-war topics. The first big series she drew was The Red Book, dedicated to rare and endangered species of animals and birds. Writes fairy tales and poems, illustrates short stories. She draws various fantastic creatures: unicorns, animals with human faces, she especially likes the image of a man – a bird – Siren. In 2020, she took part in Poznań Art Week. Her work has been published in magazines: Gupsophila, Harpy Hybrid Review, Little Literary Living Room and others. In 2022, her short story was included in the collection “The 50 Best Short Stories”, and her poem was published in the collection of poetry “The wonders of winter”.
The Turning Leaf Journal 