They Were Alive | 2010
Gyrating grayness
wrinkled, twisted and torn
at its lower right most corner
calculatingly capturing two people
compressed in a moment
that will never repeat itself
with quite the same reverberation ever again.
Human beings
frozen in time, space and circumstance
standing at the center of this now decaying photo
engulfed by infinitesimal grains of sand
the wind willfully flirting with them as they pose for a picture;
a picture that reeks of salty water
As the timid girl bashfully tinkers with her short skirt;
a souvenir that will scream in all its splendor
“I was here! He had his arm wrapped around me.
We were alive, and we were both here.”
But this token manifests a misleading muse
perplexing and pinning down the eyes of strangers;
attracting their undying attention
making them wonder who these people were;
concealing what relationship they have to each other
and also reticent in revealing their connection
to the person holding the photo as well
imprisoning so many inherent questions
bruised and tinctured for having so much to tell
and yet painfully procrastinating
having left so much gone unanswered
with nothing but Armenian calligraphy at the back
exasperatingly endeavoring to elucidate:
“Oceans evaporate. Sand particles are no longer the same.
The photos disappear, but the memories remain.”