Posts Tagged ‘child’

Mission of Mercy

Tuesday, March 19th, 2013

The robins came in the rain
To take the worms away.
Mother told me they were drowning
And the birds lent their wings
For a rescue mission
That taught the creatures
Of the earth, what the sky
Felt like beyond just a dream.
That the robins whisked them away
From mud puddles deeper
Than the well I watch Father dig
That seemed to stretch from earth
Back to sky all over again.
Mother told me worms couldn’t swim
Because their arms never grew right.
Kind of like how I never grew right.
Will the robins save me
When the waters come too high?
Of course they will honey,
And they will teach you to fly.

But Mother lied.
I watch the robin’s beak pierce
The earth like a kraken’s claw
Dividing land from sea
But the way was not clear
And the sojourners never made it through.
The worms surface from the earth
Hoping to find air that wasn’t drowning
In water, but the water was rising fast
Into a flood that would sweep them away.
The jaws of hungry animals
Pried into the earth and wrenched
Their bodies from the softened ground
Like daisies fresh for picking
Even though they were ready,
They where ripped from their roots
Body, soul, and all to be devoured
It was no rescue mission but a massacre masked
In the form of a red breasted beast

I sat watching through fogged windows
And wondered, if these monsters with wings
Veiled their murder in missions of mercy
What would my rescuer be?

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Wind Mother

Thursday, December 1st, 2011

The wind gently rolls through the trees
Like a mothers soft whisper in her infants ear
Telling her of things not yet unfurled
But waiting on the distant horizon
Like a run away balloon
Swept into the abyss
that is not cold, dark or lonely
but quiet and filled with the warmth
of a contented heart that beats
not because it has to but because it wants to

Dancing in pirouettes on the shoulders of the leaves
Rattling the bones the edifice of this green breeze
Until just one person stops to watch and listen
To the secrets swept up by this whirlwind
As the bones are rolled to reveal the truth that lies
In the scattered remains, a world foretold
But not yet cemented
The wind is shifting in this dire breath
Switching back from foot to foot
A ballerina bowing and swaying
With the whispering wind
Dancing not because someone is watching
But to release the rhythm bounding in her mind

Clarity is the remnants of the words left behind
As your hair is tussled and your clothing left displaced
A clairvoyance unachieved until this moment
All you needed was the gentle prompting of the wind
Like a mother letting her child go into the dark, cold, lonely world
That isn’t quite so lonely
And isn’t quite so cold
yes there is a darkness
But your child will find the way
Like a blind woman they will be guided
By the caresses of the wind
When all else is darkened
There will be your hand

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Creeper Photo: Two Worlds

Friday, February 18th, 2011

There is another world at my fingertips
So solid and real yet non-existent
No matter how far you dig
The opposing hands seem
Just beyond reach
A drowning sibling
Too far for contact
With this other world
At times you see each other
In the glimpse of a shadow
Out of the corner o your eye
In the slight reflection
Of a dirty decaying mirror
Hiding in the corner
Of an old attic room
Immersed in a dark pool of water
With the shimmering image
Of this world
There one moment
But lost in the disturbances
Of the world we find ourselves in now
You wait for these fleeting meetings
Between you and your other self
Whom you never knew
Except for those evanescent glances
Into a ghostly world
Were two were almost one

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Creeper Photo: Eye Contact

Monday, November 29th, 2010

Many people when they see my creeper photos either think it is totally strange or very interesting. One of the questions I get most often is what if they see you taking the picture? For most people, I take every possible precaution to make sure they don’t see. If they do see me there is a special tactic I imploy to sooth their suspicion.

  1. If you notice you have been spotted, don’t run away in fear of being called out. Most people will not call you out, so keep it cool and they will just give you a weird look then walk away. People are not very confrontational and if you keep it cool nothing will happen. Most people assume they are being paranoid and don’t do anything about it.
  2. Occassionally though, they will call you out. So if a person seems a little peeved here is my strategy. Still, do not run away. Stay put and then put your camera up again like you are going to take another photo and wait till the are out of the frame and take a new photo. Make a real spectacle of what you are doing and make it as apparent as possible that your intent for that picture was not the person. Once they see you do this, they will not do anything about it because they assume that you were taking a picture of what is behind them and they just happen to be in the shot. They never think they they are the shot.

So, disaster averted and the world does not end. If those don’t work…. then run. However, with children I let them see that I am taking their picture. Like this little girl, children make some of the most amazing eye contact with strangers and in that moment of eye contact is a connection  like you are peering into their life. Their eyes, like this little girls beautiful blue eyes, become a window into who they are. Even though I will never know who these kids become, for just a single moment it feels like I do know.

Kids often seem to enjoy it and smile or just stare. This little girl waved to me and I waved back then just smiled and walked away. Sometimes I fancy what the parents reactions are if later the kid tells them that some stranger took a picture of them. I wonder how this makes parents feel, how vulnerable must they be in that moment. Not knowing me, or knowing my intentions of taking these photos. I just want to give my hearts out to these people that I take pictures of, by letting me have their picture they are helping me better understand humanity one person at a time. My intentions are pure and often I feel people don’t understand that. Yes, this idea may be strange or creepy to people, but to me it is about uncovering mystery from thousands of perspectives. Taking pictures not of the people themselves but the stories that build up that person’s image.

So to all of my creeper photo subjects, thank you.

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Creeper Photos: Lollipop

Thursday, May 20th, 2010

I was watching you at a track meet the other day. I didn’t really notice you until you crossed under the line where discus was being thrown and your mom had to come save you from being hit by a discus. I watched you for a while after that, you seemed very attached to you lollipop. You sat there watching the discus like your mom but I could tell you weren’t really watching, you were just trying to act like your mom. IT was very amusing actually. I hope you enjoyed your lollipop and the rest of the track meet.

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Creeper Photo: The Pensive Child

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

I noticed you while at a park, your were just a baby standing there all alone. You didn’t seem to have any family around, but it really didn’t seem to faze you at all. For such a small child you seemed very mature. You just stood there stoically watching all the other children play, while you stood just on the outside. Truthfully you caught my interest because even though you are just a baby, I saw myself in you. I don’t know why but you fascinated me, a child so independent, pensive, and watchful. I couldn’t help but wonder who you will grow up to be. I wonder if you will lose you watchful nature and your silent seriousness as you grow, or will you forever be that person, always on the outside watching those within the norm. For now all anyone will see is a baby in a sun dress, cute and adorable, but that isn’t what I see. I see who you can be, the potential of who you will be.

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Midnight’s Child

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010


The moon is framed with reaching hands
Holding out waiting
To cradle the child’s leaning head
When sleep hangs
On the starry eyes
Of Midnight’s child
We will be waiting
To catch you
As you fall
To wrap you up
In lights warm embrace
To cradle the fragile
Fluttering heart of a baby bird
We will hold you tight
Until it is time
To let you go
Until your heart
Grows strong again
So close your eyes
Child of the night
We will cradle you
As you sink
Past the point
Were you can
Re-open your eyes
Lay down your head
In a cradle of hands
We will hold you
We will keep you safe
Until midnight comes again

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Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Photos, Poetry |

Creeper Photo: Dress Up

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

I must say this image sickens me slightly. The fact that this little girl, maybe four years old, is dressed in high heels and black spandex tights. Is it just me or is something wrong with this picture? I don’t understand how parents could dress, or let her dress like this.

Not to mention it was in Hawaii, it was so hot out I don’t understand how she could wear this without overheating.

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High Chair

Saturday, September 26th, 2009

Empty store
A TV. On mute
It feels so empty
In a corner
A high chair sits
Covered in dust
Long forgotten
I wonder
Was it ever used
Did a child
So loved
Once sit in it
Now gone
Blue with colorful
Cotton candy designs
Where is the baby
Did tragedy strike
To steal it away
From it’s loving parents
Plucked like a flower
Cut down before its prime
Feathers floating
Softly to the ground
Did an angel take it away
Or perhaps
The child just
Grew up
The chair
Just unneeded and unnecessary
As a child
Grows to big
For it’s former joy
Growing apart
From all it
Ever knew and loved
The child was taken
Away from it’s chair
Because it no longer needed
A baby’s chair
So now
So empty
A blue high chair sits
With cotton candy designs
In a corner
Forgotten
Gathering dust

Sorry really bad headache today, I can’t process enough to actually write well so here is an old poem I really don’t like but I can’t create right now… sorry

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Tags: , ,
Posted in Poetry |

Missing Child

Saturday, September 19th, 2009

The woman stands
Arms full of grocery bags
In front of a store
She doesn’t move
She is frozen
Those that pass her
Look to try and see
What her far away stare
Is focused upon
What horror she is witnessing
But what they don’t see
Is that it isn’t
An image her stricken eyes
Have fallen upon
But the absence of it
Alone the mother stands
Her child is nowhere
Gone from sight
Disappeared into a world
Beyond the safety of a mother’s touch
Where there is no play
Only a harsh reality
Of survival and death
She wonders
How could this happen
What did I do
To deserve this punishment
The statue begins
To regain life
As a scream burst forth
From petrified lungs
Dying for release
The bags fall
As her arms reach out
For something that
Is no longer there
Her child is gone
In just a blink of an eye
She has vanished
The mother screams
Over and over again
For her child
But there is no answer
Just the stares of the passersby
She falls to her knees
Her child’s favorite foods
Lay strewn about
The mother of a missing child
She hears nothing
Sees nothing
But her child
Before she was gone
Remembering that last look
The last moment before
Destiny was changed
Taking her baby away from her
So she sits on her knees
Her arms held out to nothing
With her child’s favorite foods
But no child
No one stops to help
Because they don’t understand
What it means to lose
A part of them
But now she does
The wailing statue
Waiting with empty arms
And a horrible plea
For a missing child to come back
And never again leave

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Tags: , , ,
Posted in Poetry |