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Photographic Memory

And this is me
standing
on a white hot sandy beach
with the sand curling up
between my toes
and the waves beckoning
hypnotizing me
and caressing the horizon

You can see my nose
pink and stinging
from standing in this spot
all day
every day
and the skin on my arms roasted
by the incessant sun

I chose this very place
because it was in a photo I found
in my mother's box of memories
taken when she was young and free
And so I went there too
traveled halfway across the world
to find that memory
she had kept a secret
So many things about her I never knew

But you know
I would travel anywhere
to be near her again
I'd go to the Highlands of Scotland
or float down the Rhine
brave a kayak down the Amazon
even go bareback down a steep canyon

See
once the world was hers
she was young like me
searching the world over
to find her place
and it must have been the sea
For I see her footprints in the sand
everywhere I go
and I struggle to keep up
she is always a plane ahead

At the terminal I catch a whiff
of her perfume
and her laughter circles around me
like a playful summer breeze
I take out another photo
to begin another journey
and laugh where she has scribbled
"this is the spot where I found my destiny"

Learn more about this author, P Vandegrift.
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