Alistairs First Day at School

A snapshot found
Between the pages
Of me it seems
Just one of many
A Family snap
An awkward pose
Upon the path
Standing alone
I clutch a book
The polished shoes
My cap in place
Stand just there
Dad speaks to me
You look the part
We stand there tall
Our shadows fall upon the wall
His sleeves are rolled
On muscled arms
He points the camera
Doesn’t look

He’s looking down 

But not at me

I’m framed within

The tiny box

The lens it squints

With just one eye

Smile he says

I hear a click

Just one more

Should do the trick

He winds the knob

It clicks again

Not sure I smiled

No not again

The ritual unfolds

Just as before

One quick snap

A special day

What was the day

I don’t recall

First day at school

That could be right

A little note

May shed some light

The words they say its 53 

That can’t be right

Would make me nine

The date I’d say is 49

The photo’s mute

It cannot tell

Memories I need

To break the spell

I know the place 

But not the day

Remembering, it’s hard to say

The written facts 

Stand in the way

Frail memories 

Have gone away

What was that very special day

This is a snapshot of me taken by my father on the occasion of my first day at school, probably my second school but that is another question and the basis for a PhD thesis that I am researching and mentioned in the words of the poem. I am standing outside of the Prefab bungalow on the Belle Vale estate on the outskirts of Liverpool, where I lived from age 4 till 8.  This is an Ekphrasis rather than a poem

 Alistair J Parker

2nd December 2014