twenty three
chipped and peeling clapboard
matches my memory of this place
held together by wishes
and here i am again
clinging to a wish
opening the door,
her hair falls across her face.
i remember it fell like that. like old curtains reluctantly drawn back
to let in whatever thin light was available.
she hooks two fingers into the silvered threads and pulls them back behind her ear.
at first glance, i see her eyes are older now.
more thoughtful and considering.
perhaps even wary.
she doesn't remember who i am.
the moment fills and expands and then just as suddenly collapses with recognition.
her eyes glisten for an instant, but i can see that they're just as quickly guttering
like candles in the breeze of our sudden, cluttered communion.
"you . . . here?" she asks with some kind of mid-ground voicing, half here, half elsewhere.
ever the opportunist i lunge at the opening her words provide.
"may i come in?"
her body pulls back a half-step, as she attaches this moment to the history of us, this doorway, and this house.
in her reluctant head drop, in the falling of the curtains of hair back across the window of her face,
we slide into the past.
i take my own half-step backwards suddenly seeking the present, until she says with reluctant encouragement,
"no, come on. come on in. you look tired.
are you hungry?"
***
15 comments:
A moment in time - for all time...
Wow Steven, so much is contained n these few words, memories, images,and people. Thanks.
Liminal.
Very cool, thank you!
Poignant prose, Steven.
"cluttered communion"...oh yeah.
Hi Steven! Thanks for your comments!..
Greetings..
Oh Steven - I want to know more about these two people and their association in the past. Tell me more.
ahh jinksy - not quite timeless! steven
elisabeth when i saw this image on a friend's blog, all sorts of images floated around. they might not connect well in the writing but there was a visual flow in the movie in my head that was compelling. just a moment. an expanding moment. steven
liminal! thankyou for that reya. i so wanted this to hold the space. it wanted to be written. steven
jo i don't know entirely where this piece comes from but as i said in my comments above, there were words and images that clustered around the image of the numbers and i placed them here in one space. thankyou. steven
hey matias - you're so welcome. it's all i can do to express my amazement at your outstanding images. steven
weaver if i could step away from the work i do which asks for and deserves so much of my creative energy, i would write the larger story connecting so many of the moments i share here. i'm expecting that when i approach retirement, something will present itslef that will allow me to fulfill your wish. steven
steven, moments that sometimes we tend to go back and relive or imagine the course of unfinished stories or just imagined.
Very good!
oa.s
hello oa.s, i'm letting this one hover as the unfinished moment that it is. but it may connect up with its essence moments some day. steven
Agree with Weaver- I love these people, I love stepping in and being asked if I am hungry, I love being both characters in this piece.
I thought that the number might become a tattoo, but this will do...quite nicely!
Did a pocket stone ever reach you?
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