Love as thyself

Iris Kritikou

Kostas Schizakis

Colours glitter on the little toy car, the children laugh, fairy lights from unheard-of worlds and little flags float in the magical darkness around me, but the lamias that rob you of your voice at high noon lie in wait, hidden in the carousel’s orbit. Everything is terrifying and inexplicable, the modern and the old, the beautiful and the ugly…… the world the grown-ups make is muddled and keeps on turning. Only my own world is wonderful; I make it myself, for endless hours, with coloured pencils on snow-white, tempting paper.

“Maria, smile, smile, watch the birdie… come on, smile!”

(“I’ll smile when I want to!.. leave me alone..”)