The Myth of Arcade Photos
Small, square, black & white snaps
My Mother & me above me & Dad
Two tales framed in burlap mat
Framed by burlap sand bags
Aboard a Coast Guard cruiser
My father shined his sailor shoes
Shoes that swept the beauty queen
Unlocked her pointy golden fleece
The stars above they danced beneath
A constellation wonderland
First, a box of letters sailed the sea
Yellowed, purple postage stamps
Then my father stamped on glass
Raised my mother’s veiled lace
The stars aligned in outer space
As oracled in timeless lines
When my father Icarus fell
Mother Medea stole his seed
A needle pricked through plastic flesh
Look at her cloudy, colorless sky
Her tired eyes distracted, blurred
And my father’s eyes, the size of stars
Paralyzed by ancient surprise
Poetry South, 2009
