Some are laughing, and some are trying to look pretty,
and some don’t think it’s funny, or just
don’t get it, and some are wearing glasses and some
aren’t, and some have lipstick on
and some don’t, and one man
has on a bow tie and one man
isn’t wearing a tie at all and all the women but one
are wearing cat eye glasses and are also
fat and kind of old. One man looks a lot
like the comedian Al Franken, or vice versa, they’re all
look-alikes for someone, or so it would seem, faces
become familiar after daily exposure, like in this photo
of a time and place, and these details,
noticing whenever I look how touching
it is that this fat lady’s feet
don’t reach the floor, and this man
is laughing so hard his mouth is open
and his eyes are closed,
and his head is tilted back, the one with the bow tie
wouldn’t you know it, and isn’t it endearing
the way this woman with her beautiful
blue dress and wide red leather belt
slouches down as though to say
I don’t really think
this highly of myself it’s just
for the picture. Maybe the man with no tie
is the janitor, because he doesn’t have a jacket either,
his skin is darkened by sun, and his smile and look
are fresh and open, full of the sky.
It’s a small school, six men and six women
sit and stand in front of a curtain
with a little sign propped up in front:
“
School
Staff
Spring 1962”.
I got this photo
from a junk store in
just for the frame, but these people
in their particularity
frozen in a not-too-significant or meaningful moment
laughing or not at a silly joke like
“Say cheese!”
are still somehow here, living in this frame
that far from lying in a drawer is propped up
where I can see it, like others of its kind
(three barrel-shaped people and a bulldog,
a soft-eyed girl), and I will probably
never find another use for it, though I still don’t know
even after living with them day after day
who these people are.
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