Undeveloped Love Poem by Stephen Parker

I focused my sharp lens

on your lovely image

My shuttered mind

snapped in ecstasy

The brilliant flash

captured your frame,

then I recoiled

as the image developed

into a grainy shroud,

but a duplicate

of the lovely parts

sketched in my mind

Through the delible lines

and the pixelated dots,

the deep imprint

of an endeared hand

that had stenciled

over your warm heart

his pen-pricked signature

Still, I brandished the negative

with its dark contours,

and the unfiltered light

that jaded my dreams,

tracing the smooth curves,

caressing the tight grooves

of a still life form,

whose heart had been stolen