Conformity

While swimming close to shore, a shark

bites off your right leg. He was hungry,

what else was he supposed to do? You

were the one who ventured out a bit

too far into the water. Your step is now

irregular, and what to do now with that

extra shoe? So you decide to swim into

the surf again. In order to even things

out, you offer up the other leg. The shark

didn’t much care for the taste of leg, and

he goes for your left arm instead. Great!

First there was a problem with a useless

extra right shoe, and now this, a left-hand

glove which no longer finds a fit. It does

explain, however, why you toppled over

onto your face at the starting blocks, coming

in dead last at three-thousand metres steeple

chase. It’s Saturday, and reluctantly you decide

to take up oil painting instead. At first it feels

awkward holding the brush in your right hand.

Chris Hanch 9-13-17