What’s in a photograph?
A memory to have and to hold
A physical representation of something that once was
But will never exist again

It’s a trigger, a simple mechanism
A catalyst for chemicals in the brain
To recall a place and a time
That is now only stored in the annals of memory.

Some aboriginal tribes believe
That a photograph steals a part of the soul
And I often wonder if that’s true
And maybe that’s why we feel so spiritually bankrupt.

The reason I have been giving this weight
Is a picture I took of my good friend Scott
Somewhere in the developing process, something went wrong
The upper part of the picture is heavily distorted
And I wonder if that was part of his soul
Crying out as it was being torn from him.

© J. Bernhard

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