FANCY DRESS

The Present had ceased
to exist.

Already it was the Past.

A Past only
seconds old.

The Future, now
a dimension unknown

to the dead man
who smiled.

He had become his
photographs.

Some neatly placed
in the maroon album

with neat exact
captions

in his copperplate style
Elizabethian D's.

Other photographs
lay scattered at his feet.

Paper memories.

Sunlight held prisoner
from the long ago.

His life measured out
in B&Ws and Kodachromes.

And this is how
they would find him.

His life arranged
or scattered before him.

One photo
on his lap.

Fancy Dress - 1st Prize.
Dec. 5th - '56.

The photograph
was smiling.

He had come
as - Death.