Similies

A poet PÁDRAIG Ó TUAMA once said, the importance of a similie is not only within the comparison between two nouns, it is recognizing the difference between the two. She shrieked like a hyena. It is important to recognize she is both like and not like a hyena. In the absurdity of the comparison, (a woman being compared to untamed wild animal with gnashing teeth when her fear simply can no longer settle in her belly so it tears itself out of her throat) a new image emerges. When the comparisons are constructed are not so far-fetched i.e Ocean Vuong’s “our clothes fell off like bandages”, the dreamlike weightlessness of the clothing being removed in an amorous exchange is illustrated through the image of a band-aid lofting aimlessly towards the floor; there is a dialectical relationship between the differences and similarities of each word which gestates an entirely new image. When I say I am like you, it is a simile. I am like you because I am not like you.

We are alike because we are not alike. We both are dreamy, caught between Earth and somewhere else. Yet, our dreaminess couldn’t be more different.

You are a mystery. The manner in which you observe those around you, is deeply perceptive and meditative. Wallflowers like you, notice the discrete behaviors and recognize larger cultural phenomena exemplified through our accepted absurdity. From simply existing in the same room, or strolling the same street, you identify unspoken natural truths. You have the eyes of a writer, in your silence you are seen. Silently you imagine, and as your thoughts dance around, you bring new life into this world.

When I stumble into a room, I am as subtle as a clown car. My dreaminess is aloofness, a complete removal from the world around me. Jejune idealism, both baseless and uninspired. Rather than gaze lovingly at the humanity, I am a space cadet. Cocooned in the inviolability of my own mind. My head is in the clouds, accelerating further and further from the world around me.

We are alike because we are not alike.