Wednesday 3 May 2017

DREAM PHOTOGRAPH


'the blackbirds are rough today
like ingrown toenails
in an overnight jail'

charles bukowski



i was pleased with myself
i had taken a good photograph
it was as if i had forgotten about it
then
found
it
on a bad flat day
so
i was actually almost elated
like i had made a diamond 
from an ordinary bathroom turd
with talent
and
mad alchemy

the photo was of a boy
on the street
an xmas morning

he is small like a mouse is small
flats tower behind him
he is watching an old car drive away
maybe like its his innocence 
leaving inevitable as a tide

there is something
of the poor little rich boy
about him
something of an ending there
on the empty street

he seems deep in events bigger 
than his learned posture
and eggshell mind

but its the man coming into the frame
stage left

hurrying
like a late beginning

guilt
haste
even love
in the blur of his legs

that gives the picture a life 
and a story

there is a paper wrapped package
in his arms
somehow there is no doubt
he is running to the boy

its all of it in those old shades 
of delicate and faded 
copper and gold
like an autumn that went too close
to the sun

their clothes are formal
too formal
and as i wake
i realise i never took this photograph

nor is it a memory either

it was just a dream
i was never there

and neither were they

i only photo my back yard hedges
and the mean birds out there
eating
my
grain
then flying away again


Image result for sepia photo rich kid

civil war child photo for sale on ebay

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