Soul's Bay Second-Hand Shop, Texas 2023

Amidst

Embroidered hankies,

Silverplate cutlery,

And wood pull toys,

Customer finds empty

Compact disc case

With a single photo

Inside: an old black

And white Polaroid,

Its triangle tab intact,

Shows John F. Kennedy,

With First Lady Jacqueline,

And the Connallys, happy

In their limousine, waving

To well-wishers,

On image reverse,

11-22-63,

Written in lead.

Elsewhere in the thrift,

Are tilted lampshades,

Rows of dangling purses,

And bins of photographs:

Lost sons, wounded daughters,

How to reconcile shadows

Of the big and little?

But the little are never really small

My beautiful mother

Took a picture of Robert Kennedy

When he spoke at her campus

In May of '68.

She dreamt of him when he died,

Watched his spirit exit his body.

The next morning,

My parents argued while sitting

In our idling red Dodge, braked

At front of house.

Mom wept and wept

Recounting her dream,

While dad, gripping the wheel,

Proclaimed her insane.

A photo is meniscus of passage;

Fluid layer--watched,

Identified, fleeting--

The President's 

Midnight blue limo

Advanced very slow,

Until it accelerated

Shockingly,

Just past the Plaza.

Laura Stickney 2023

 

Notes:

photograph found at a Ferris, Texas thrift shop

in 2023, from WFAA and NYPOST.com

meniscus-- from physics, is a delicate, curved  

surface of liquid in a vial.