I finally finished the first two dioramas on my "epic" Tower of Dioramas! One goes with a poem I published here awhile ago called Glories and the other one goes with today's little entry.

 

When everything is working just right--
the sewing machine tredle makes the little girl swing.

So here is the poem for the second piece--

                    Snapshots


I forage through snapshots
          piled like fallen leaves.
I crunch time.
I cinch it accordion-style.
Scrambled fragments--
          memories staged and bleached
                   with a wash of busyness.
A frantic hum and whir of minutes
          startled to stillness.

A parade of my faces,
The march of selves stepping off years--
          hostessing and holidays
                    recitals and graduations--
All those camera ready occasions,
All those cautious, polite smiles,
Leave me lost
          fingering my own paper life.
A spectator--
As though I'd happened upon
          the frail shell I laboriously fashioned
                    washed up along a beach.

I search each face for some common thread.
I look beyond the dated hairdos,
          the shoulder pads and mini skirts,
                    all those nostalgic settings,
For something in the eye I might know--
          a shard of self
                    linking all those separate selves.
Some continuity ringing like a clear note.
Some thing that feels true.
Some thing that summons kindness
          for all those earnest strangers
                    that look like me.