sifting through photographs
old-style    ones you waited on
hours    days     etermity
for them to be delivered

torn from the film envelope
all vivid images
caught by one small
glass eye    a segmented shutter
closing   like   a  lid   on

the marketplace     its
unpronounceable name
tangy bouquet      spices & lilies
turquoise ocean   laced
white edges

improbable scarlet
birds   that   pirouette
&       jette   far   above   
eddies  laying themselves
to dry
on ivory sands

all    reduced   to   glossy
fragments
fading     as     you   watch
unable    to    keep
their promises