Snapshot

take the snapshot

take the piece of memory

like it was a page of text

beneath the lens of a

document camera

you talk to the English teacher

about his summer trip to Music City

you drink black sludge that tastes

like burnt radiator fluid

you discuss the nuances and

preferences of vocalized teardrops

are the teardrops expressed by

male talents truly superior to the

ones expressed by female talents?

take another snapshot

the paystub shows the truth

of the matter, being a Promethean

acolyte in this day and age doesn’t

pay at all

the options must be weighed

and a future trip into the field that

fuels today’s home fires might

be the way to go

a single stupid decision can

displace a person permanently

take another snapshot

the dreary children are trying

to apply equation solving skills

to the missing attributes of figures

angles and segments might

as well be Greek to them

on a random Tuesday morning

the heat is a fact of life and

the administrators are afraid

of Korey Stringer’s abstract,

vengeful spirit

take one more snapshot for the road

the simple emotives brought forth

from the mouth of Elliott Smith

inspires contemplation about the

future and reflection about the past

reality is indifferent,

cold and cruel in how

it functions,

just like mathematics

when it’s pure and

unadulterated

the elder passes on

and the ones on the

outside only glance

at the misery and

feel no connection,

and barely any pain

death occurs as the

ignorant customer

buys a new bottle

of Hershey’s syrup

for tonight’s

banana split

are these the snapshots

that one would want

to see at all?

are these the snapshots

that should have had

their negatives burned?

but we don’t live in a

film canister world anymore

it doesn’t matter though,

the hard drive of today is

yesteryear’s photo album

locked in the attic

the images retain their gloss

but the memories will fade

take a snapshot of the concrete

so it becomes abstract

even the abstract has

time limitations

Reviews

[Muse]

The snap shots we failed to take. Is this a mistake, or a just poor judgment? Life races before our eyes, and we take for granted that our memories will forever serve us well. But unfortunately it is just like you said, the abstracts and negatives have a shelf life. Not even our memories are forever. Perhaps it
s better to hammer our thoughts into stone. Writing our thoughts on frail paper...like old photographs...it all fades away too easily.

[Kenneth The Poet]

Thanks, Muse. Glad for the thoughtful review.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

just had my ice cream last night...with Hershey's--

i really like this piece and i love how you bring in the mathematical terms and use them so metaphorically in this ...very clever write.

[Kenneth The Poet]

thank you much, jacob!