Sometimes a photo holds a story–or wants to be a poem. This one that I took over the weekend keeps speaking to me. I’m not sure yet whether this is the story or poem it wants to be…but maybe it is a start.

Face-to-Face

In the slippery world of the sea

sea lion barks and seagull screeches

complex conversations

like those you have

with your father

about politics, where you’ll 

never

reach agreement

or with your sons

about their diametrically opposed choices

for a family car

A face-off, face-to-face, FaceTime, about face

familiar faces

we recognize beyond seeing

contours engraved in the mind

connections beyond confrontation

Love that is the warm salty 

blood that runs through your veins

the briny fluid that feels like home

where life began

splashing, swimming

One slides onto the rocky shore, the other

swoops down from above

joined by

difference

joined by connection

joined by

the slippery world of the sea

®Douillard