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.