There exists this photograph
Of a young boy and tiny girl
Playing on a rock strewn beach.

Knowing I was the young boy,
The year in which I was born,
I can say with some irony
That it looks more like
A battlefield in WWII
Than a pleasure beach!

It just cannot have been taken
So very long after the war
Ended and we were at peace.

(God if only that were ever true!)

Does it matter at all that
I don't know where we were
Or, indeed, who she was?

The important thing surely
Was this was even possible
So soon after buzz bombs
And anti aircraft fire.

Now, I think to myself
How much of my life
Has been like a photograph
Of which I have no recall
And it saddens me.

© Griffonner 2026