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:

Paper time

Paper is a Time Machine, but it only goes backward in time.
Don’t ask where it begins, I don’t know where to begin,
but I know when you read you’re transported back in time.
I’m certain of that, but not much else. Is it part of the pencil

Radish

Santa Claus of the garden,
you bring snap of winter
to the mouth, crisp frosty heat.
Some call you icicle, watermelon,
breakfast, French, pink, orange, purple
(dirt had a real grip on that one.)

The killing and dismemberment of Osiris

Gods are murdered in ritual,
with family in attendance.
If not as executioners, then moral support.
The god must be torn apart
thrown into all that is and is not.
Sister brides always grieve
journey to join the god together,
as he has always been put back together.

Mom on deck

Call for Mom.
She’s needed on deck;
no one else will do.
Who could possibly replace her?
Santa Claus or God?

Related

Paper time

Paper time

Paper is a Time Machine, but it only goes backward in time.
Don’t ask where it begins, I don’t know where to begin,
but I know when you read you’re transported back in time.
I’m certain of that, but not much else. Is it part of the pencil

read more
Radish

Radish

Santa Claus of the garden,
you bring snap of winter
to the mouth, crisp frosty heat.
Some call you icicle, watermelon,
breakfast, French, pink, orange, purple
(dirt had a real grip on that one.)

read more

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