the promise

look at that shadow

streaming back

the protective clasp

lightly held

i curved my body into you

while you, my brother,

stood apart

i am mid-murmur

something confidential

or seditious

about that enigma

behind the camera

dad

mum you turn your face to

better scrutinise 

the eye peering

through the glass

back at

what you had both created.

the fiction of

mum 

dad

and the kids

this was the perfect holiday

we swam naked

and forgot

for one forever-summer

the family that we were

the days weren’t even

many

yet they stretched into the future

a prism we all held

happiness was credible

an option

we four, for whatever reason,

refused

such strangers

to ourselves

time reduces

clarifies

and fades

this photo holds

it still

the promise

as it fell 

the shadow streams on

forever

hicks bay summer 1960.