A Relic

PROMPT: Find an interesting picture of an object--one that you took, or one that you discovered. Look at that object 2 different ways (modified from the prompt my friend, Betty wrote about yesterday).

***

Picture: I snapped this photo in London during the summer of 2009. It has been years since I saw an actual phone booth, and I could not help but to stop and to stare and to snap.

***

My stuttering soles stumble on stones

Step by step, springing past the iron bars

Striping my view of freedom

Shadows trail me--

Morphing as I move

The ruddy outline of an object shines

A refuge in the distance

Growing brighter, the cardinal hued box

Greets me with a choice--

I stop

I pull

Secure--I sink

Uncoil the cord,

Press the raised keys,

And wait.

***

From here,

I can watch--undisturbed--

I can observe nature's paintbrush disperse chlorophyll

And memorize the escape of every loose stone

I can inspect clumps of excess paint on the posts beside me,

And follow branches as they tumble from the blanket above

From here, I can watch the world shift

Gazing through the filmed windows,

Smudged with old particles of bad breath

And tarnished with filth,

I study Amorphous figures stumbling by,

Squinting to define them,

They fail to notice me.

Tripping texters, absorbed in conversation

Just a few years before,

I bustled with attention

Now, I am a relic

An antiquated garnish

A statue commemorating the past

The perfect hiding spot

For children raised without me.