Three Boys, Bird City Kansas

The open road

of a photograph

is an invitation to go

I pack a bag, pen

and thoughts--

where imagination wanders:

an hour lost in time

Bird City Kansas

Three boys pasted

onto a cheap cardboard cutout

of a gray wall

cross legged on a tuff of hemp

(no waste of hay)

posed for posterity

their fresh scrubbed faces

ramrod fixed

eyes shout to an innocence

most unlikely

the Sunday finery I suspect

a prop

borrowed from the tickle trunk

of an itinerant photographer

The reality of the day

Cheyenne county

was cattle country,

red dirt denim lads

busting selves for a hard earned living

off the dry plains

When I return

a century after

their dollied gaze into the camera

locks us all

in the box

of musty memories.

Ken e Bujold

Author's Note

seems picture that inspired poem didn't pop up on google so decided to include it here

Reviews

[JD Major]

Really enjoyed this :) ...bittersweet, haunting, good write!
JD

[Ken e Bujold]

thanks JD. stop by anytime

[W. Barrett Munn]

This is quite excellent and tugs you right in to sit beside you as you study this picture which could also be a road sign seen somewhere. I think my favorite part is "red dirt denim lads busting selves" - that is my father and my father's father before him. A close second is "when I return a century after"
Congrats. A beauty you wrote here.

Winston

[Ken e Bujold]

thanks. is a new cycle i am beginning, playing with old photographs. glad you enjoyed

[willweb]

You use your pen like a brush because you paint the most vivid images with your words. I did google what you suggested but did not find the photo but I didn't really need to see it, your poem did that for me. Really cool Ken.

[Ken e Bujold]

thanks for compliment Will. have attached the photo to the bottom of poem now

[willweb]

That's pretty cool. Thanks Ken.