CLICK

Written
1990

 Caught in time.

Captured and imprisoned

     in plastic envelops.

Here are the fossiled tracks

      of my tribe in a paper midden.

Once glossy and bright

      now faded and dull.

Eroded by time

      and eye balling.

Here is history frame by frame.

Resurrection on command.

This is Houdini's crossing

      from the other side.

And the old Sioux were right

      a soul is so captured.

Warm fire and mellow music

      and time for a reunion.

They are all there

      and some I can't name.

There are smiles

      that don't hurt to hold.

Cars and clothes

      now museum pieces,

      contrasted with timeless youth.

And it is July 4, 1937 forever.

Mother, young forever

      and that trophy trout smells

       as fresh as they day I caught it.

Sun and shadow acid etched in hillsides.

Trees leaves that never drop.

I have a time machine

      to make all of this.

With requests to say:"cheese"

      and the click of immorality

      the young are initiated into the tribe.

Posed with the things of our time,

      they take their place in the time slice.

Layer after layer

      new residents are collected.

The record of human geology

      laid to be read

      on winter's evening.

 

 

Notes
I spend time looking at old family photo albums. I have a feeling sometimes that for a moment I can be there is the time and place of photos.