"The Birthmark"
Some children are set apart by their physical blemishes or disfigurements, which can become an unspoken burden to their young selves, and may test, first, their parents' love and, thereafter, the world's kindness. I once knew a young father whose daughter had been born with a large black birthmark extending like a tar pit across a good part of her forehead. He would tussle lovingly in horseplay with his toddler, gently intoning his pet name for her, "my little gorilla."
TITLE - "The Birthmark"
WHERE - Garden statuary store, Burnaby, B.C. (2015)