On a Photo of My Now-Elderly Parents Embracing Their Grandson

Andy Posner

You notice your parents’ aging as you do your own:
Not at all, then in a photo, all at once.

There the pain of happiness fading:
The moment after the embrace,
The walk down the jetway,
The plane disappearing in clouds of blue.

Mom is holding Richard, rooted.
Dad has one arm around him, eyes half-closed—
The bliss of a moment long-awaited.
And though Richard won’t remember,
In some distant future fast approaching he will see
That grandma and grandpa, long deceased,
Held him with a love so deep, it forever
Defies that tender tyrant—time.

Andy Posner grew up in Los Angeles and earned an MA in Environmental Studies at Brown. While there, he founded Capital Good Fund, a nonprofit that provides financial services to low-income families. When not working, he enjoys reading, writing, watching documentaries, and ranting about the state of the world. He has had his poetry published in several journals, including Burningword Literary Journal (which nominated his poem ‘The Machinery of the State’ for the Pushcart Poetry Prize), Noble/Gas Quarterly, and The Esthetic Apostle.

 

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