Stone Soup

Where young artists paint the world with words

The international magazine of stories, poems, and art by young writers and artists. Published continuously since 1973.

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The Absence of Opposites

Many things are true,
I know this is, too:

there is no cold,

there is only
the absence of heat.

Heat is a
fluid thing

that has no form

except
for life-saving warmth.

Cold only happens
when heat is
not there.

Cold is not a
thing.

It is a
happening

that makes the body
shiver and shake.

Heat relieves that pain,
makes you sweat
(and sweat can be a nuisance)
but

it is just heat
reassuring you
that it
will always
be
there.

Kieran O’Donnell The Absence of Opposites
Kieran O’Donnell, 11
Philadelphia, PA