My Visual Evolution
Images used to rattle around in my brain.
I’d take great pains to collect them
like seashells or pebbles
from the beach,
clenched fingers holding tight,
spilling some here or there,
trying to remember and savor
all I’d seen.

Back then, a bulky camera
would weigh down my shoulders;
few images would scroll and roll,
one frame to the next;
timing and lighting might vex
an otherwise perfect shot.
Patience was not
negotiable.

Now my fingers clench around
my phone, a camera
in disguise. It’s so sly.
It can capture pictures in pixels
the second my eyes catch a glimpse.
Images that used to slip from memory
now slip into files,
piles and piles stack up,
virtual shoe boxes packed full.

These days, I admit to being very nostalgic for film — but my life, right now, doesn’t have the time to process and develop much of anything, let alone images captured on rolls of Kodachrome.  There are times, though, when the camera in my pocket — the one disguised as a phone — allows me to capture something special, in spite of the rush and bustle of life. For that, I am grateful.