Negative Capability Press Poetry Blog

3

the picture

we didn’t know you existed
the day we took that picture
like a specter from some
campfire ghost story
you could not be photographed
your image unreflected in any mirror
for us to see
we were glowing
from a day in the sun
no sunscreen, of course
no need
we thought

silken sheets of
too long hair
innocently shrouded
your ghastliness
my friend
donned a straw hat
lest
we both fell down
and broke our crowns
unlike jack and jill
we were protected and
perfect images of strength
we’d jogged that day
along the beach road
one hundred degrees or more
no water
and no sign of you
just good health and happiness
the pleading words
of my prayers

it would be a month
or more
before you would
reveal yourself
you had been trying, creeping in
but i ignored you
and your subtleties
focusing instead
on the blatant ugliness
in my life
it was a great distraction
from what would soon become
my main focus
and one
deserving of all those tears
i loved to waste them
then
on those who didn’t deserve them
no more

today
i will live in that picture
solid, golden
grinning like a fool
you, obscured
by my persistent glow
and my refusal
to tend to you
denial was an idyllic
and oft visited place
back then
like the town in that picture
so
we smiled and
carried on as
people tend to do
when they are on vacation
never thinking of what
is lurking
like a phantom
awaiting
their return