Can a camera
save a life?

I believe this to be true

Photography, it is said
shutters something away
and seldom
ever gives back

Cultures exist whereby
beliefs determine
entire souls disappear
down those optic tunnels

And, should the image
meet subject matter
in its focal point
and its depth of field
it may not be
the one desired;
immortalized
digitally propelled
into the vast
unforgiving ether

Had I forgotten myself
in giving?
when I looked
I did not know me
did not like
what I did witness

I grifted
swindling away
what was left
tossing it aside
angrily
carelessly

Almost a reach too far
to touch and haul back:
almost

Sequestered in myopia
a difficult no-place
difficult, as well or not
to leave

Visionless
needing to see
differently
so that I might
see myself out

“A camera teaches you
how to see without a camera.”
wrote Dorothea Lange
and well she would know
so I looked

And, I took and took
image after shot after picture
after photograph
each and every frame
a gift to myself
for the mere act
of looking

Until I no longer desired
to turn away

© jameshoustonarts 2024

Image: © jameshoustonarts 2024