THE PHOTOGRAPHER

You are absent

from most of them,

the photos

of me as a child.

It is strange

that only after

your death

do I notice, feel,

your absence

as a presence. The role

of the photographer

is exactly that:

to take and make 
pictures

but not

be in them.

To be there and not

was who you were

in life and it is

who you are now

in death.

The pictures

prove it. They exist

because of you

and yet you are

nowhere to be seen.

Between the adult-me

looking at the images

and the child-me

in them gazing out

is an omniscience

I don't quite understand.

Curious that omnipotent

was the word

you aimed at me

as a boy again and again.

You did so to tell me

how powerful you were,

to put the fear of god

in me, and to make me

behave. Like a camera

that word caught my attention

and held it. The pictures

are your prophecy.

They’re the proof that you are

still watching.

THE SELF

Hard as stone

sturdy as a barricade

and still the light

breaks through.

Stunned and amazed

the self stands

before the hieroglyphics

of its healing heart.

SHADOW BOAT

There is a light

that shines through
even when you fall.
And the shadow
that’s cast after
will be
what carries you,
cradles you,
buoys you up
when thresholds
come to you,
that you cross
though you thought
you might not.

SLEIGHT OF HAND

Pull a coin

from behind

the same ear

again and again

and your audience

will only see

one trick, not many,

regardless of what

your hands

are doing,

and the spell

will be broken.

In the same token,

the more you

repeat yourself

in an effort to

make a particular

point, the less trust

you’ll evoke. Redundancy

will be the enemy.

And any attempt at magic

will vanish, revealing
the hoax at hand
and the feigned 
currency within it.

SIMPLE

What if all I had to do

was to count

the different shades

of green

in the city trees,

and to listen

for the music

in the foreign voices

in the room,

and to let the dog

beneath the table

lick my fingers

like a lollypop?

What if this was

all I had to do

today? 

What a day  

it would be.