Portrait of Eternity
You hold it by the hand.
This stillborn subject of
a camera's lens one day--
complete that instant when
a moment freezes as unique,
its sum of history
and the unknown, audacious
in its silent voice.
Give it a little time.
It asks for nothing,
but rewards are there--
incomperable, they swirl around
and through the never-ending mind
that permeates the all,
the sine qua that no one
ever sees.
A scrap of cardboard!
One of thousands daily swept away
in silence, offering its vanity
among the garbage of the landfill...
and its priceless treasure, too.
Tremble as you hold it!
There lies a universe straight forward.
Gaze into the eyes
that seek the action of the shutter;
they carry now and evermore
the world that came along to mix with light
and re-create itself
within a single flash.
It is an altar there between your fingers,
yes, a reliquary, and much more.
It isn't just a curiosity,
or souvenir of memory;
it is the opening (and mounting to be sure)
of one thin, speeding
impossible fragment that totality
left far behind.
~
Copyright © Robert Ludden | Year Posted 2014
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