A Life of Photographs

Photographs capture the happy moments in life.
The moments where we’ve taken time out of our busy day to snap a smile or a goofy look that lasts only a millisecond.
A flash that is blinding and leaves us seeing little circles minutes after we posed, creates occupied spaces in an empty photo album.
With the push of one little button, we can remember something temporary, permanently.
A thin, flat piece of paper with that photo on it somehow brings us joy when we see it in that photo album or in that picture frame.
It brings us back to the very moment that our image was frozen.

But what if that photo wasn’t simply flat?
What if there was more to it than just a sparkling smile that stands out?
What if there was a backside to that captivating moment?
A side that thrives on taking snapshots of all the things that we don’t want in that album.

Instead of a flash, there is an explosion of light,
imprisoning those tears that no one knows are falling.
That small button is punched,
marveling at the fact that our pain was seized and stopped in its tracks.
There are no tickle me pink grins or laughs that are contagious,
but instead the mood is tickle me blue and the word laughing has no meaning.
These pictures don’t capture just a millisecond of our busy hectic lives;
they make up the majority of it.
These are the winks that are misinterpreted and then fall through the cracks
where no one will ever see them.
Look at the split seconds that made their way into that happily hued photo album
or those in the picture frames all around you.
No tickle me blue or black hues are radiating off their flat surfaces,
the only complexion glowing are those tickle me pink, rosy cheek twinklings staring back at you. We don’t want those downbeat times
that are soaked in a blue funk to be taken into custody and made permanent.
And though my eyes pop with the color blue,
I too would prefer the intoxicating hue of pink, beaming faces to be the ones that we keep.

I know that a picture is still thin, flat, and one sided;
but if we took a step back to realize
that there may be something hidden in the moment that was there,
then maybe they wouldn’t disappear in the flash.