and then the world changes

snapshots, and change

we love to take group pictures,

a snapshot of who we are at one time,

and then the world changes,

and he who is next to us is no longer there to laugh,

and she who smiled in the rightness of her joy is gone,

I love photography

for I can imagine a moment can last,

yet people die, flowers fade away into seed,





the present dissolves into the indeterminacy

of a future we did not expect,

I like to live for the moment,

I like to prepare for the future,

and I need to look at a picture and remember the loss

that works to hollow out our assurance,

the loss we need to still feel

while we fill moments anew

with who is still there for the picture

and to treasure those who are new to the group.

by Henry H. Walker

June 17, ’14