"His Gallery Of Life"

(written on 4/13/06 for 10th grade English project)

Throughout his life he took snapshots
to put in concrete and film the things of beauty
that he would find in life,
and his pictures soon came to define him,
and he soon began to approach his life with
a photographer’s view and a camera ready in his hand.

The two of them became part of his collection of pictures,
His own flesh and blood played their roles as extensions
from his own life,
And forever they stood by his side,
And forever they continued to share with him the many
worthy things in life that he may keep forever on film.

Each new airport that he arrived at,
And every new language that he learned to accept,
And all the different cultures that he encountered,
And the hour-long flights across the Earth’s oceans and seas,
And the historical landmarks each to its own ground,
And all the realizations that he was now standing
in a place where many have seen on postcards,
but would ultimately never visit or even fathom to see,
These new experiences of travel he also kept in his album.

But there was doubt that filled his thoughts,
and those doubts had the same effect as the
blood did that was dried and cloudy in his sight,
The incident had caused many complications,
And the entire process of going from expert
to expert was excruciating,
And the forever lasting checkups and questions,
And the blinding lights that were put to his eye,
And the silver, and bloody, and sharp tools
that would cut, and implant, and seal,
And the contrasting joy that was achieved from
the eye-opening and eye-closing experience,
Every lasting day in his chaos was documented with
the clicks from the opening and closing of a shutter.

From childhood they were made part of him,
And through the ages they became parts in him,
And by their bond they all shared an
unbreakable, an undeniable, and a lasting amity
that would weaken, or maybe strengthen,
the day each of them would
become bonded with another in matrimony,
But until that day arrives, their bond
will live on its own unconsciously,
And their love for each other will do the same,
And they will all create memories with each other
and put it all together in their scrapbook of memory.

She had found a way to his heart,
And she forever lived in him whether either of them
wanted it to be so or not,
He was never exactly sure of the things which
Drew him to her, maybe it was her look,
And the way she would make him feel a part of her,
And the long phone calls from sunset to sunrise,
And the fact that many associated
her with him and him with her,
But that haven never lasted forever for him,
For days came when they would not see each other,
Days when the two of them refused to talk,
And days when their connection that they once had
began to atrophy into a mound of bitter ashes,
And he couldn’t help but to take his camera
in his hand and make permanent the emotions which he felt.

He had a relationship that would forever change his life,
It consisted of humility, and respect, and it fluctuated
as do the colors of the sky on a dying day,
Yet, this relationship continued to thrive and
it was hindered by temptation, and apathy, and it
had many highs and lows just as the course
of emotions throughout a day has,
It was still worth a spot on the film
where it would forever be and forever continue
to flourish because God’s love is everlasting
as are the seasons of the Earth no matter
the troubles of life.

As he grew older, he became attracted to the simple
and beautiful things that he saw in life,
Like the numerous shapes of clouds in the sky,
And the way they moved so slowly that was unnoticeable,
And how they were amorphously familiar,
The beauty which came with notes from a guitar
also caught his attention and the way
he could make tunes on his own,
The sunsets and sunrises were worth waking up for
and worth staying up for,
And the way they peeked over the horizon
ever so slowly and discreetly, like afraid to be seen,
And how watching them would create its own time
in our world, because minutes would fly like seconds,
and the seconds would blink themselves away into
the future, into the realm of time, if it ever did exist,
He cut his apples in a way so that the unseen seed star
was able to be appreciated and loved as are the
stars in the sky, except now he had a star in his green apple,
and that made life much more beautiful than it seemed,
and that made life much more accepting,
And these aesthetic aspects made his life
a simple extravagant collage of photographs.

The brother and sister,
And their lasting presence for memories,
The happiness of travel,
And its new sights and heights that it had to offer,
The traumatic experience,
And its hidden and mysterious didactic nature,
The childhood friends,
And their huddle that would forever be,
The girl that he loved,
And will continue to love unconditionally,
The higher being,
And the death that would be his living breath,
The minute splendors,
And their ability to capture his heart,
All these things he found drawn to,
And all these things are collected in his gallery of life,
And it is added to each and every day
according to his current emotion which flows
like the raindrop that flows down the lens of his camera
on the rainy day that called out for a portrait.