Separation

The saddest dilemma is separation, dealing with loss. Life is dynamic. A longing for peace yearns for certainty, but leads to life’s most puzzling paradox.

Separation begs connection.

Connection sustains separation.

Separation results from connection.

-Insert dogma, belief, philosophy or ultimate truth here.-

TMD

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Frame of Reference

The edges trail across my wall, black on sea-green foam; a rectangle holding the pane that holds you.

The frame insults the curve of your mouth, your smile stilled by time, your eyes staring through the moment asking, “When will we see each other again?”

The sly lines of your face oppose the rigid polka dots on your shirt. A photo refuses to describe the beauty within your smile.

A daughter so far away.

Oregon may as well be Mars tonight.

A frame carries you from the glossy world of memory. A frame that holds the photo you said caught your mood.

And my mood, when I see it, mixes with the lines and polka dots and connects the silence behind your eyes to the emptiness I feel.
A picture is only a few words uttered alone in the night, hanging over a phone, too late to pick up. It holds my words in silence until we connect again, until the highway brings us back together, until the sky brings you home.

Oregon is just a word, just a feeling, just a frame of reference holding the promise of connection that can’t replace a daughter’s touch.


—Sean Reynolds