Identities

by Albert N. Katz / June 27th, 2021

So much depends
on what you see
reflected in the mirror

old young father child
brown black white
male female cis trans privileged marginalized

happy/sad

victim/predator

loved

or abandoned

In a binary world, just 8 such pairs
will reflect up to
256 possibilities

but really
what we see reflected
is not a product, but a process
and the possible combinations
are innumerable

Albert N. Katz (he/him) is a 74-year-old retired Canadian cognitive scientist who, after 43 years as an academic, retired and began a new life as a writer of short stories and poetry. His stories have appeared in both speculative and mainline literary magazines, including Allegory, the /tEmZ/ Review, Otherwise Engaged, and Kansas City Voices, where his story “Hocus-Pocus” won the 2020 flash fiction competition. His first mystery thriller, “Tiny Packages” has just been published in the Anthology “Murder Mystery Mayhem” (Nordic Press, 2022). In addition to those published previously in Dissident Voice, his poems have appeared in Ascent, Abyss & Apex, Backchannel, and Rattle among others. He currently lives in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada with his wife and two rescue cats. Read other articles by Albert N..

This article was posted on Sunday, June 27th, 2021 at 8:02am and is filed under Poetry.