Like Owls
My mother used to
paint portraits with our
smiling faces. Now,
there are only the
canvases with the
image of our backs
turned to the camera,
where our shadows were
closer to her than
our minds. My mother
sent me a photo:
My sister and I
sat side-by-side with
our backs turned, looking
out into the small
lake of a village
we had visited
the month before. In
return, I sent a
similar photo:
My sister and I
in front of the same
lake; our backs still faced
the camera, but,
we had rotated
our heads like owls.
Ai Jiang is a Chinese-Canadian emerging writer who graduated with a BA in English Literature from the University of Toronto. She is currently working on a novel project under the guidance of a mentor in the Humber School for Writers Creative Writing program. Her writing is forthcoming in the Button Eye Review.