1944 Photograph


In the picture she is younger
than I am now,
would have to be
since he’s in a uniform
and she’s without a ring.

She stands between his arms,
uses her own to lean
against the railing of a ship --
the spray of moving water
barely showing down below.

Must be the ferry boat
from Auckland out to Devonport,
since I can see the lighthouse
in the background of the shot:
a seaside town, a sunny afternoon,

a Yank, a Hershey bar,
a stolen cigarette,
a hand beneath a hem,
a sigh, then back across
in time for evening tea,

except her eyes are narrowed
like a channel waiting for the tide,
peering not at Devonport,
or even back at him, but out
into the harbor mouth.



Ali Fischer