by phillipw | Dec 26, 2019 | DO, WH
Donald Anthony Whidden She holds me on her lap, embracing with Her arm and hand my young boy ribs and blue Pajamas. It’s become a monolith— This portrait—packed with family meaning, true Or not. My brother leans against his dad, A cheek against that dark wool...
by phillipw | Dec 26, 2019 | IV, WH
Ivan Louis Whidden Ivan is on the far left In the portrait Ivan has a distant Look, almost a simper—an artefact Of darkroom doctoring, that persistent Saccharine retouching, to hide the fact That we were human beings? And we were, Despite our mother’s...
by phillipw | Dec 26, 2019 | PH
What the Photographer Did Not See There is a certain irony within The carefully contrived composition. One face is part obscured; that bit of chin Is veiled from view. A blond apparition Of glossy hair obtrudes beneath the smile. Is that a prophecy? This partial...
by phillipw | Dec 26, 2019 | PH, WH
Span Span Span Span Span The earliest of colored pictures of Him shows him dressed in blue, but not a blue Of firmness, not a strong one. Pastel love Perhaps was its prediction. Pale is true, Though, also. Manliness is not required To be one hue. Maleness...
by phillipw | Dec 25, 2019 | WH
Removed from the Sinister (Second from the Left) …… Pastel and false in various ways, the pic Is truer than its maker meant. He thought To make us perfect, 1950s slick. Despite this sophistry, the vision caught Tells truer truths than visual ones. ...
