Old Photo Poem by Morgan Michaels

Old Photo

Rating: 4.2


Like a land-locked sea, slowly drying up
from the edges in, till just
a splash of its former self-your long dead relations
the island survivors you knew them-
this old photo, gnawed by light, fades away.

Here, in pearls, is your lovely mother.
In spats, your matinee-idol father.
Here, your aunt, before spinsterhood set in
poising primly before the prom.
And the furniture!

It has everything to do with the light:
the fingers of the light rub the borders of the lake
like Time. And chemistry, that we must also say,
without knowing why.
Anyhow, it fades,

Inevitably, for hide it,
hang it in the dark or otherwise
dilute the light, it still
slides in like a tide, a drop-off, reaching,
in a century or so, their knees.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Patti Masterman 06 September 2016

I thoroughly enjoyed this. Your language was the perfect touch to reveal the image. Old pictures have so much to say really.

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Tammy Ashton 15 December 2014

Almost bittersweet. I really liked the imagery. Thank you for sharing

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Paul Brookes 22 December 2012

Well written a painting in words thanx for sharing : O)

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Suzanne Stroop 11 December 2012

as vivid as you can get - fantastic

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Francesca Johnson 09 December 2012

Old faded photos, the people so alive at the time, then everything slowly drifting into nothingness. We are but a millisecond in the history of the world. Fran x

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