◉ 075 | Up. Down. Left. Right. Right. Wrong.

A few years ago,

I turned my notebook

upside down

and forced myself

to write that way.

From right to left.

I’m right-handed,

so I kept

smearing the text.

It was slow.

And mind-boggling.

Some letters

came out wrong.

Almost Cyrillic.

The number 3

gave me the most trouble.

I kept flipping it.

But I kept going.

Eventually,

even the 3

went the right way

every time.

I grew to like

this new style

more than

my normal handwriting.

Especially the double S.

It reminded me

of Matisse’s signature.

I kept

writing this way

and eventually

I could do it

without thinking.

It became

my new normal.

But some of that

kid-like quality

disappeared.

I still like it.

But it no longer

surprises me.

Now I’m trying

to write right to left

with the page

the usual way up.

Like Arabic,

but with mirrored letters.

Leonardo da Vinci

filled notebooks that way

five hundred years ago.

But he was left-handed.

Maybe quick-drying ink

would've helped.