Miss Photo – 1979
A picture of her is slowly taking shape,
Growing in the developer.
Look: eyes, a curl, the curve of her shoulder, breast.
All looking now like
Someone I’d like to know.
Oh, Miss Photo! Could I see you for a moment?
I want you to work on this enlargement.
I want you to fix a quiet half-hour.
Would you consider sticking with an
Image of me?
We could be together
On the page of an album,
Close against each other,
Secretly on the shelf,
Quietly collecting dust.
Waiting to be seen
IN ANOTHER TIME BY SOMEONE
Who maybe doesn’t even know us.
Upon seeing us
Clapped there on the page:
“What a lovely couple they made.”
Don’t smile when he says that.
Don’t give away our half-tone
Life together.
Lie here, close to me
In the stillness
Among the other volumes:
Immortalized
In a picture of love.