Coincidence did not cause
the young man’s cheek
to share the curve of mine
in his gray, buttered face.
His finger-combed hair
wet with grease,
his white, Sunday shirt
folded one flip from his wrists
as he squints, grins, leans
against his 1938 Buick
beside a skimpy ash tree.
The picture’s slanted—
like we should expect
that inky car to roll—
the bulky lens too heavy
for the ageless friend
who posed that grainy world.
Or maybe it wasn’t
the Kodak’s weight;
maybe an instant flashed
where the nameless cameraman
glimpsed his friend
with future, spotted wrinkles,
creaking knuckles,
a still and silent phone,
a sandwich chewed beneath the drone
of telecasts for baseball games;
and that man’s fingers
staggered.
But without knowing why,
in that moment the camera slipped,
the world tilted,
and that faceless photographer
carved from time
the car, the tree, the young man—
a hand hiked upon his hip.
____
The featured image, ‘U Will B Someday Soon 11 11’, was used with permission of artist, Robert Alan, a mixed media artist from New York City.
