HIGH SCHOOL PICTURE

HIGH SCHOOL PICTURE

The year book is open

to your senior picture,

this one by two inch

portrait of you forever

captures your image,

your thick dark hair,

the same beautiful smile

I have seen everyday

sitting next to you in band.

I have grown so close

to you in a years time,

this intimacy on my

part secretly growing

within unbeknownst to me

until now, as I gaze at

you smiling up at me

from the page. The

thought of sitting alone,

you graduated and off

exploring new life,

new direction far from

the cloister of High School,

fills me with great longing,

and great melancholy.

I sit, obsessively searching

your picture, closely

examining every aspect

of your face, committing

to memory, the shape

of your face, the arch

of your eyebrows, the

way your dark hair frames

your face, your eyes,

your nose, your lips,

which I have so longed

to kiss, my mind all

the time hearing your

voice, praying that

graduation will not be

the last day I hear

you speak, wishing

that somehow I could

have recorded your voice

so that on those days

I miss you the most

in the year ahead,

I hear you saying my name

over and over again.

I go to the drawing table

my father made for me,

collecting pencils, brushes,

a bottle of India ink

and a large piece of

white drawing paper,

and placing these on

the table I sit, and slowly,

lovingly transfer your

image from the page

of the yearbook to

the paper in front of me.

As I draw each line,

shape and shading

of your face on the paper,

they appear simultaneously,

imprinted forever

on my heart.

© 2015. The Book Of Ruth, Deacon Bob Wagner OFS, All rights reserved.