Thursday, February 7, 2008

A Christening Photograph

a Christening photograph
father child mother
a formidable background

under gentle weight
the child rests securely in
Gothic hands with the semblance of stone

a granite caress

a rock a tower a pillar
watch the eyes


mind's mortar cracked
thought's seep through to
another time
same trio

after the funeral side of the road
your father's death has chipped
the stoic facade

I watch

you raise those heavy hands
damming the flooded pools
hidden tears behind a wall of stone

gripping the wheel
you drive on

these hands
hold the memory
those hands
cradle the infant

similar not the same

time deepens cracks and crevasses

yet gazing at you
a solitary unprotected tear
baptizes us both
in a somber sea

copyright 2008 t. ewing

4 comments:

AJ Harbison said...

Ah! So good. I love this one too, I'd forgotten it. Knowing the story helps, I imagine, but the visuals you conjure--imagery again, I guess, but I was trying to look for a different word--are so vivid. And I love the picture of baptism at the end.

AJ
<><

Darth_Harbison said...

Unlike AJ, I don't believe I know the story behind this . . . But I really like the imagery, too . . .

Anonymous said...

In aggreance with AJ, I love the imagery and I remember the story. This is the one that you gave mom-mom and grandad with the photo of you that hang on their bedroom wall at the old house :)
~Nicole

Lauren Bishop-Weidner said...

This one slays me. I have held the child who now lies on the "funeral side of the road". Not sure if it's your brilliance or my pain, but this one hits home.