Photograph - V2

Looking back at the photograph, I touch the worn edges, sagaciousness of the past, the cold, places forgotten. I feel the spring’s warmth, fall’s emptiness, summer days left behind. I smell the faint scent of pine and sea breeze, a favored perfume, redolent spoor of memories. I taste the sweet, mesmeric flavor of lemonade, and the acrid regret of tacit words. I see the sunlit smiles, immobilized by time, eyes now faraway, a spectral reminder of that forsaken. I hear the laughter resonating in the mind, an oppressive silence, louder than any past empathies. I smile, an apparition of joy, mingled with a parting’s sorrow. I remember the stories, the love, and the hope that faded. I know the depth of those captured moments, the pain of letting go.