The Right Light Makes All the Difference
BY KARRIE WAARALA
It is a simple snapshot, woman with wineglass
paused at her mouth, giving the right of way
to a half-hidden smile. It is a smile worth waiting for.
Note that around her eyes it does not hide.
Note that her eyes are focused out the window,
the sunlight echoed there. Pay attention
to the easy slope of her shoulders, the lens is just
a third voice in the conversation, whispering.
Listen to the conversation, see how it doesn’t
make her hand shake. Delight in her messy hair.
Trace the cautious grooves that she will soon
name wrinkles. Look at her not care.
Look at the care the photographer took with this simple
snapshot. Examine the wineglass closely. See him
echoed there, paying attention to the sunlight,
paused. They have waited years for this smile.
It is a simple snapshot, woman with wineglass
paused at her mouth, giving the right of way
to a half-hidden smile. It is a smile worth waiting for.
Note that around her eyes it does not hide.
Note that her eyes are focused out the window,
the sunlight echoed there. Pay attention
to the easy slope of her shoulders, the lens is just
a third voice in the conversation, whispering.
Listen to the conversation, see how it doesn’t
make her hand shake. Delight in her messy hair.
Trace the cautious grooves that she will soon
name wrinkles. Look at her not care.
Look at the care the photographer took with this simple
snapshot. Examine the wineglass closely. See him
echoed there, paying attention to the sunlight,
paused. They have waited years for this smile.
Karrie Waarala holds an MFA from the Stonecoast Program at University of Southern Maine. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in journals such as Iron Horse Literary Review, PANK, The Collagist, Arsenic Lobster, and Radius. Karrie is currently working on finding a home for her wayward manuscript of circus sideshow poems, upon which she based her one-woman show, LONG GONE: A Poetry Sideshow. She really wishes she could tame tigers and swallow swords. She can be found online at: www.poetrysideshow.com.