A PHOTOGRAPHER IN THE WAR ZONE
Her face won’t sit still for
the cameraman. She’s about to run.
Her legs are out of the frame
and her eyes, her lips, are blurred.
His picture won’t win a prize.
His lens wouldn’t open wide enough
to include the small child
that she clutches to her breast.
And he captures none of her fear,
her determination. Nor the sounds
of gunshots, bomb blasts,
the cries of others – “Get outta here!”
Had he pressed the button
a moment later, she’d have been
already across the street,
slipping inside the first open doorway.
He’d have just snapped smoke,
maybe a soldier in the distance,
or a body lying on the street.
She’d have liked a copy of that:
the plaza, a moment or two
before the grenade exploded.
She could have shown it
to her grandchildren.
About the author: John Grey is an Australian poet and US resident. He has been recently published in Stand, Washington Square Review and Sheepshead Review. His latest books, “Covert,” “Memory Outside The Head,” and “Guest Of Myself,” are available through Amazon. He has work upcoming in the McNeese Review, Santa Fe Literary Review, and Open Ceilings.
You can find him on Facebook.