Day 12 - 2.7.13

Prompt for: February 7, 2013
Subject or Theme: Black & White (rummaging through old black & white photos of whatever...)
Word(s) to Include: (describe the emotions this brings ~ whatever it is)
Forbidden Word(s): happy, happiness, memory(ies), remember(ed), sad, sadness
Additional Parameters: Emotions can lead to a memory or a thought ~ take it where it leads you.

The Best Present


The final Christmas present this year:
a box I thought forever lost in one of our many moves—
found in my eldest daughter’s basement,
wrapped and given with a box of tissues.

I joked that a present
wouldn’t make me cry.
She handed me the past
and I blubbered like a child.

Cursory leaf through,
thrilled to have them,
but I wasn’t ready:
until tonight.

Five albums of black and white photos—
Five generations: some long gone; yet still, alive.
Dad’s been gone almost twenty-four years, Mom—almost ten:
Tonight we sat together on the couch.

I could hear dad’s laughter, hear him call mom’s name.
See my mother pointing to different pictures:
Heard the stories once again, like it was yesterday
So different now, yet still the same.

Black and white captured moments.
Life frees the colors to emerge in my mind.
Mental videos play surrounding movement
Like holographs playing out in the living room.

Called my daughter, she ‘got’ it; understood.
“Go write your poem, Mom.
You’re working on a deadline.”
Maybe more, tonight, of a lifeline.

Tears dry as I write. I can smile now, feel strangely light.
There’d been no funerals: as per request.
I think tonight I could finally let go enough to understand
They never really went anywhere at all.