There is a yellow tinted photograph holding the time
I held you first.
Film paints history where memory fails to fill
the six years shadowed between us.
My Polaroid camera, my first camera clicks.
Dressed in cream, rose-blush cheeks.
White boarders spit out memories pressed flat.
The only time I had boundaries around you.
“The lines fall in pleasant places”,
so scripture says.
My boarders here are fussy, messy, uneven.
Yours,
yours are drawn perfect, sketched in gold.
I’ve tried to climb into your portrait,
to feel you again.
to feel you again.
Anything to replace the last touch
where I felt you cold, not beating,
eyes closed.
How do you pick up the pieces?
All at once with broom and pan?
Cover the brokenness over?
Or just leave the glass shards there?
You broke into my shattered portrait.
Beaming over our Jonah.
He pointed upward calling your name.
He said you were bright.
He said you were happy.
He said you were smiling.
There is an ever-lit photograph holding the time
When Heaven came down
through the lens of a child,
where it will never fade.
May 22, 2016 – In Memory
of & In Hope of seeing you again, Hailey Wolcott
“In a picture, I want to say something
comforting…I want to paint men and women with that something of the eternal
which the halo used to symbolize…” Van Gogh
Beautiful tribute to Hailey and comfort for all who have lost a loved one.
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