# #sorting Pictures (Edited 11/11) Poem by Sonya Florentino
# #sorting Pictures (Edited 11/11)
She’s pored over old photographs
Shifting through layers
Trying to find her lost child
To see for herself the transformation
She wanted to see the signs
Of fear and pain, anger and shame
How the carefree child becomes the un-child
The clouding of the eyes
The disappearing smile
There were so many of them
Images in black and white
So tiny, now fading grey
The paper once shiny, now thin and frayed
But she could not see it
The absence
She could not recognize the emptiness
She always looked the same
Guiltless
Sinless
Always smiling
Always conscious of the probing
Finger-pointing eye of the camera
© 2009 Sonya Florentino
* with thanks to Ronald Peat for his critique
Wow; from the very first line, I understood what this was going to be about. But that did not mitigate the suspenseful tenor of the poem's purpose. I could so imagine doing this exact thing. Thank you for a powerful write! (smile)
A very powerful message. A little girl's world has been shattered and still she smiles. Heartbreaking, Sonya.10/10. Warm wishes, Sandra
For one to go through this entire horrible ordeal and survive psychologically is a miracle. Thank you for sharing.
This was a very touching piece..more so, it is about a child's ordeal and finding her niche. Again and again, the feeling deep inside is hurting.It maybe painful but there must be acceptance somehow in the future.It bleeds my heart very much because I know how it feels to be one, as I was a social worker when I was single and then continued to assist my Aunt, a nun in her work with the children every week end.There are many problems..family, rejection, abuse.. Thank you for this sharing..A powerful message indeed...Your last lines really pulls my heart string. God bless you, I love love you and do take care of you. Hugs, Meggie
Wow! This has glaring beauty to it, in its straight forwardness, in its truth-telling. You really capture something here. I have worked with kids that have gone through all kinds of abuse, and what is so remarkable is that very few show hardly any trace of it. Not when you meet them, not in photos, not in their eyes. In the huge majority of cases the social training is more out front than the distrust, pain, etc. It speaks to the resilience of the human spirit and what tiny crumbs of love a child can survive on. Thank you so much for sharing this one, Sonya.
How many tortured souls suffer behind a serene surface veneer? And they say the camera never lies! A heartrending and disturbing poem that makes the reader think. S
It is not only the camera that misses the evidence. For years I confronted a church full of negitives.---10
This is what many of us go through..wonderfully expressed those moments, thanks for sharing, Sonya..
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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4/26/2024 9:15:51 AM # 1.0.0.1119
...always conscious of the camera; that's what a normal man's life is...isn't it? the camera being the world.....of course sonya, it is sad and pretty unfair to ones own self....