The Ekphrastic Review
  • The Ekphrastic Review
  • The Ekphrastic Challenges
    • Challenge Archives
  • Ebooks
  • Prizes
  • Book Shelf
    • TERcets Podcast
  • The Ekphrastic Academy
  • Give
  • Submit
  • Contact
  • About/Masthead

Packing Up Old Photo Albums, by Phil Keller

12/22/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture

Packing Up Old Photo Albums

A dusty family album on a shelf, 
a photograph of relatives long dead:
a boozy garden party, leis, straw hats -- 
they toast the camera behind jovial masks. 

In the transubstantiation of the flash 
their faces are miraculously young, 
almost unrecognizable, 
until memory adjusts its lens 
and a lost world swims into focus. 

It must have been shortly after the War.  
There are no children in the scene 
or swelling abdomens:  
most look barely past their teens, 
returning conquerors before 
the fog of peace enveloped them.  

Who knows what bawdy tales they shared 
in this exuberance of youth, 
as sweat beaded their drinks and beers 
and dampened the plaid tablecloth? 
Who knows who flirted, who was shy?  
Life shimmers in the Kodachrome:  
the slant of sunlight on a glass, 
a flag stirred by an unfelt wind.  

This uncle’s life was filled with pain, 
his mind gutted by electroshock.
The peace he found came on a moonlit beach,
casting for silvery striped bass
that gleamed as they were reeled onto the sand.

The woman in the grass skirt was my mother. 
She stands apart, eyes hidden from my gaze,
a drink held in one slender hand,
sunglasses in the other.  The sky
was either clear or threatening rain.

Phil Keller

Phil Keller is a 70-year-old recovering lawyer living in Montpelier, Vermont.  He began writing poetry about 10 years ago after the last of his children left the house and he suddenly found himself with empty time on his hands.  He has previously been published in Prairie Schooner and The Wine Cellar Press.

Picture
Photos provided by the poet.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    The Ekphrastic Review
    Picture
    Current Prompt
    COOKIES/PRIVACY

    This website uses marketing and tracking technologies. Opting out of this will opt you out of all cookies, except for those needed to run the website. Note that some products may not work as well without tracking cookies.

    Opt Out of Cookies
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Join us: Facebook and Bluesky
    @ekphrasticreview.



    ​
    ​Archives
    ​

    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015

    Lorette C. Luzajic [email protected] 

  • The Ekphrastic Review
  • The Ekphrastic Challenges
    • Challenge Archives
  • Ebooks
  • Prizes
  • Book Shelf
    • TERcets Podcast
  • The Ekphrastic Academy
  • Give
  • Submit
  • Contact
  • About/Masthead