Contrasts

by Susie Gharib (December 2020)

Portrait of Erna, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1915

I loved to spot differences as a child

in the pictures of magazines, scattered around the house,

in the shapes of straying clouds

that momentarily lingered in cerulean skies,

in the size of waves I braved without a guide –

I preferred them all to Crosswords –

but now I am seventy and seventy-seven months,

I have grown averse to the notion of contrasts,

such as those spotted when a supple hand

is deliberately placed next to mine

in an effort to remind me that my ageing façade

is beginning to look like a crocodile’s.

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Susie Gharib is a graduate of the University of Strathclyde with a Ph.D. on the work of D.H. Lawrence. Her writing has appeared in multiple venues including Impspired Magazine and The Ink Pantry.

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