Published: 12 March 2026

Photograph of my imagination

The photograph is aged. The red leeched away,
leaving more blue green so it appears aqueous,
the entire piece older, rare because of it.
The picture shows a window within what appears to be
a bedroom wall. The window frames within it the outside,
a river, perhaps an outlet to the sea. It crosses the picture
and is gone. There’s a rowboat tethered below the horizon
at a small dock on a creek that leads to greater water.
It rests beneath my eye, waiting as if to catch someone
who might leap into it. I have no idea where this photo
came from. Did it arrive with someone in my family,
is it somewhere I should know? How long ago?
I look into that photograph, out the window, wish
I could leap into that rowboat, follow the current
to the sea, to a wide world that beckons me
to explore all there is to discover beyond
a hidden shore far past this unknown room.

More Poetry:

every day I reach

every day I reach
a thousand times
above my head
for a glass or plate

your path

you cannot avoid your path
you cannot step off your path
it’s non-negotiable, can’t look away
you will see your path through

Time is the sky above us

Sunset lit wind swirls,
smells of waning days, sleeping warm.
Light eddies, tumbles in little whirlpools,
dances the future of leaves, drain of hours

History

Shimmer of birch leaves against slap of sunlight
all flicker and history, tale of what is to be
what is told. Time between winter and summer,
reckoning and memory, counting and forgiving.

The more I drink

The more I drink, the more I love my family.
Until we drink too much, then we fight and cry.
That’s not a plea for understanding or absolution,
it’s a question of what makes those you love

Mother Tongue

The mother tongue is the mother
of all tongues, including half tongue,
two tongue and ten tongue, so named
for the weight they must bear. Ten tongue

Related

your path

your path

you cannot avoid your path
you cannot step off your path
it’s non-negotiable, can’t look away
you will see your path through

read more

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