Opposites
Yesterday, in the shower he was rehearsing his talk on Srebrenica.
When he first mentioned it, she was surprised.
Why was he giving a lecture on Russian vodka?
Today, in the shower he was wondering why opposites
attract. How could he be drawn to someone
who cared so little and knew even less?
But when she offered to join him he decided to wash
their differences down the drain – realizing he would
probably never understand why, in some cases,
opposites attract,
while in others, small differences
can seem reason enough to kill.
After many years of studying and writing in the U.S., Ruth McKinney returned to her “home and native land.” She lives on the St. Lawrence River near Kingston, ON, where she can almost see America from her front window. Her poetry has previously appeared in Colere (Coe College, Iowa) and Interdisciplinary Literary Studies (Penn State Press). She is a graduate of the Banff Centre Wired Writing Studio.
