hello stranger

impossible to have known it then
not easier to think of now
will forget about it later
but would write about it somehow

the hazy promises of photographs
lazy lies and smudgy smirks
glistening poetry of a moment
montage of jolted quirks

mountains dissolving in a lake
ripples searing with shafts of light
butterfly wings and mossy swings
roads slicked by rain and ochre night

clumps of snow on red-tiled roofs
pile of orange leaves on a field
indigo buds tumbling atop a cave
clumps of snow on a windshield

yellow speckles on a snake
long and rough elephant grass
stylized rooms of people
with faded jokes and plates of brass

friends guffawing in a market
dinner for two on a beach
beautiful shells on slothful snails
and freezing stars, just out of reach

these photographs trace changes,
also trap some old familiarity
but i usually spot a stranger in each of them
and that stranger is me