Start off life as a violin. Eat a lot, grow tall, get really fat. Ignore the comments on your size every time you get on a bus, the rolling eyes as you squeeze up the
Start off life as a violin. Eat a lot, grow tall, get really fat. Ignore the comments on your size every time you get on a bus, the rolling eyes as you squeeze up the aisle, the huffing, tutting, shuffling in the seats, the loud banter about charging you extra. Try to smile at the jokes, too. Join an orchestra and be put at the back. Behind the prettier - but not the most glamorous - strings, right next to the other oversized misfits. The tubas timpani and bassoons don’t really empathise, though. They join in with the jokes, too. Get used to having an unexciting part to play. Try to look pleased when they tell you it’s so important to be steady, that you are really the backbone of the whole shebang, the one who keeps us all together. Try to join in and laugh at the jokes, too.
Louise Longson
Louise Longson lives in rural West Oxfordshire. She is published by One Hand Clapping, Fly on the Wall, Dreich, The Ekphrastic Review and Reach, among others.
A qualified psychotherapist, she currently works with those distressed by loneliness and social isolation.
Twitter @LouisePoetical