The Hidden Photo
our smiling faces snapped at exactly the right time
sitting there among our favorite holiday toys
placed in a simple, cheap frame
my grandfather perched in his rocker at our entry
his requisite greeting meets us, a simple, “Hey!”
my grandma, her normal glum self, said little if anything
but we, the willing tweens, persisted on our mission
to present the frame
to our silent grandma seated in her own rocker
her reaction one of unwilling acceptance.
.
our mother, behind us,
watching this exchange with our paternal matriarch
speaks up with, “They wanted you to have this.”
grandma replies simply, “Okay.”
.
conversation drags while grandma holds the new photo
loosely on her lap
.
when she finally stirred to rise from her chair
we knew it was time for our photo to find
its rightful place
displayed among the dozens filled with grandchildren
her choice – a bookcase tucked behind grandpa’s chair
the disappointment grew knowing there it would stay
our faces would remain obscured
our photo
hidden
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Posted on December 16, 2015, in Poetry and tagged DoubleU, John White, Poetry, The Hidden Photo. Bookmark the permalink. 52 Comments.
DoubleU = W 
So, so poignant. I could feel it.
Thank you! 🙂 You’re too kind.
Wonderful piece of writing…..Evoking memories…. 😉
Thank you, Bushka! 🙂 Those were…let’s just say…interesting times.
Ahh the memories…some of them keep us…while others tantalize us and some make us both happy and sad. Thanks for writing and sharing this John…‘your The Hidden Photo” poem also brings back thoughts of the hidden life…that can sometimes get pushed back…out of sight or buried too. Hope your week is going well 🙂 . Cheers****
Thank you! 🙂 Though we try to focus on the happy memories the sad or even those moments that we’d like to forget still creep back in and can’t be ignored. This was just one of those small things that I never forgot and wanted to write about.
Yes…so true…I understand and I appreciate you sharing it.
🙂
Thank you. This stirs a great deal for me, as well. Sometimes, it’d be easier to forget some details, wouldn’t it? I’d like to think that the echoes we continue to hear inspire us to create. 🙂
Thank you, Carrie! 🙂 You’re so right. If we could just let go of those “other” details, the bad ones, it could make life so much easier but I suppose it is, as you said, what motivates us to create and it may even help to make us who we are.
This heaviness strikes right to the heart…a sad image of not mattering displayed in beautiful lines…
Thank you! 🙂 You’re too kind.
You are welcome…just writing what i feel, John 🙂
🙂
Very well written!
Loved it.
Thank you! 🙂 It’s great to meet you!
I felt this one
Thank you so much! 🙂
Well written sad piece 😦
Thank you, Swetha! 🙂
Makes me want to be the best grandma I can be
Thank you, Karen! 🙂 My grandmother was an unusual woman to say the least. It’s comforting to know that there are far better grandmothers out there like yourself. 🙂
I try!
🙂
I want to know more about grandma! This is a sad piece, a sad memory unable to be forgotten. Disappointment in youth and yet…the writer has life behind him now.
I think…and I’m sure I could easily be wrong, but I think that Mr White now too wonders as to the “strangeness” of grandma and what it was that she saw in the picture that evoked this reaction…her mourning…Youth again I don’t doubt!
…that, or she was just a glum grumpy grandma! 🙂
Thank you! 🙂 You hit the nail squarely on the head with the word “glum” to describe my grandmother. A woman who wasn’t at all affectionate and who seemed to revel in playing favorites.
A sad notation which begs the heart to wonder why grandma responded in such a way. The window of youth shows so much, but reveals so little without history known in the unveiling.
Thank you! 🙂 She had a way of doing things like that but I think it came from her lack of affection and certainly from her willingness to play (and display) favorites.
Oh how ornery our elders can be… 🙂
Oh, so true! 🙂
Fantastic yet sad. Loved it, Tweeted it and put it on my Facebook page for others to ponder. Blessings to you this holiday season and for a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year! Shokai
Thank you so much! 🙂 All the best to you and yours for the Holidays as well! 🙂
MIND CHECKING OUT MY NEW POST? https://iamjishnu.wordpress.com/2015/12/16/reading-the-lost-symbol/
Thank you! 🙂 It’s a pleasure to meet you!
Grandparents are a strange *race*, my nanna wouldn’t open her Xmas gifts in front of us, she’d excuse the term, later, after she died, we found what was many years of gifts still wrapped in a cupboard.
Sad, selfish and lonely.
Thank you! 🙂 That is a strange thing to do. I wonder if your grandmother and my un-affectionate grandmother were distant cousins. 😉
nice work
Thank you! 🙂
My heart aches for these children.
Thank you! 🙂 It was so far in the past that I’ve let go of it but it was certainly typical of my grandmother. 😉
She might have been suffering from depression.
There may have been some narcissism at work with her as well. Much of her identity and her personality came about due to her upbringing and that in itself is another lengthy story.
One I hope you’ll tell.
That one may take an entire series. 😉
Reblogged this on Ancien Hippie.
Thank you for the reblog!
Well written. Sad and vivid.
Thank you! 🙂
Oh my, you are just so excellent in your ability to put us in the room where your words actually unfolded in real time.
Thank you. I did not realize you knew my mum!
Thank you, JoHanna! 🙂 Who knows maybe your mom and my grandmother are related. 😉
Enjoyed the free-style writing; it brought back many of my memories with my family. Thanks for enjoying the Ballerina piece I wrote…..I forgot to write in that ;that was chapter one and that I’ll put a chapter up at least weekly…..thanks again and have a great week…
Thank you, Lewis! 🙂 I’ll be checking in on your blog. It’s great to meet you!