Pictures of the Past

The stilled portrait tells of a past A past where the painted girl in blue ran wild Dandelions clutched in her small fists A penny in a wishing well Her ear pressed to a conch Wanting Hoping Needing to know you really could hear the ocean In Arizona And the red paint handprint Told of a day when she held her breath To quiet her fear When a bumblebee landed On her cinnamon dusted nose. And when she couldn’t stay still any longer It simply flew away. A discarded photograph on her bed Shows two girls laughing and posing For the awaited flash Ice cream on the back porch days Melted strawberry Chapstick Always in their pockets Because the cherry tasted like cough syrup. A grainy Polaroid pinned to the wall Full of barely visible faces You could tell she liked to experiment With boys, looks, and friendships Heavy lidded eyes and a Dark color scheme Mouth frozen in a smirk Earring made of fake crystal Purple dyed curls Arm around the girl on the porch At a different stage of life A desktop background, Brightly lit Taken in a school hallway A blonde and a red-head One hand on his shoulder His lips pressed to her cheek Both smiling Eyes closed Her guard was down Her hair like a waterfall And his hand in hers A picture slipped between pages of a book Capturing a torrential downpour Of graduation caps Black polyester against White cotton clouds and a silver-blue sky And you can almost hear the cheers Celebrating an old end and A new beginning.