Photograph exhibition (poetry monthly)

 

Picture one

No-one is shocked

that children were prised

from their lives 

and laid to burn 

in silver nitrate baths.

From fading focal points

beyond their eyes,

small frowns plead;

 

the spectacle severed 

from breathing bodies

- protective glass 

and deceitful borders

broadcast the epitaphs.

Truth becomes 

a pallid brown,

a hidden skeleton 

in crumbing ground.

 

Picture two

Visitors turn 

from the ragged coats;

their shoes squeak.

They huddle, reading 

sans-serif gallery notes.

 

Picture three

The paved streets, 

where the gallery stands,

ooze with buildings' warmth

- the city stands 

where vague horizons 

and fear were caught

in forest, tundra, 

rocky coast,

where cold algae wet men

who fashioned boats, 

found islands, tasted 

bitter thought.

 

They had language,

understood 

before words were caused 

- knew a dark 

with no silhouette, 

no form.

 

Picture four

Sodium lights 

push back the black. 

Let us, bravely, 

step from the door.

 

Drop, drip, dribble.

That is all.