DISPLAYING SCHOOL PHOTOS

I have my own school photo this year
and will send a headshot
to all our children and stepchildren
just as they send us - my wife and me -
school photos of grandchildren
every year in the fall.

Some grandparents create shrines,
but I have my own method
of displaying school photos.
I like to put them in a drawer
where they lie forgotten for years
until the day I find them -
usually while searching
for reading glasses or keys -
and so begins a journey
through years of pigtails and braces,
a tight-throated, stinging-eyed journey
through gains and losses now past,
each memory perfectly framed
in wallet-sized innocence.

GOD BLESS THE CHILD
(a shy granddaughter's first day at school)
 
May she find a friend today -
may every lonely child find a friend -
and may the adults who surround her
remember that for those who feel deeply
minor setbacks are felt as body blows

and when she finds a friend
and they chase across the playground
with no thought of stumbling,
please guide her towards a soft spot
before she trips and falls.

I published these poems almost exactly one year ago today, in honor of the fact that a new school year was about to begin. It seemed worthwhile to publish them here again, for exactly that same reason. God Bless all the kids going back to school and all the adults who teach and care for them.

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Joseph Neely, all rights reserved

Come back for a new poem every Monday.