अंकल अल Ten

Uncle Al Ten: Photographia

Images haunt the naked eye
Caught in a world of black and white
Images of a place in heart
In heart once called home
New lands, new horizons
Dreams caught in emulsion
Family gatherings woven into the landscape
Landscape of a personal history
Personal voyage into an unknown
Photographia

The birth of dreams
The passing of life
Silent images caught in time
Emotional snap shops
Devoid of warmth
Except that within our thoughts
We take lifeless image
We melt our thoughts
Into the realm of waking dreams
Image comes to life
Life comes to image
We are one with our past
Photographia

No memory untouched
By the technological blades
Of cold wire and harsh truth
Just sepia tones and fuzzy warmth
Tradition captured in a box
Magic box the Indians feared
Capturing the soul
Stealing the written word
Raising human imperfections
Gathering intelligence
Like a locust storm across barren fields
Photographia

Images caught candidly
Trapped in the onrush of light
Who captures the capturer
Who documents the document
Images hang like the condemned
The hangman's noose clicks
Clicks like a iris in the dark
Fighting for focus
It cannot replace the Manong's words
It cannot replace persistence of heart'
It cannot replace the splendid soul
That lurks in the dark recesses
Of the watcher's eye
The old man writes
Smiling all the while
His secret safe within the pen
The bleeds it's ink
Across a pulp made from riddles
The old man writes
The watcher's song
Photographia