“a boy in the branches” by Bruce Rice

I don’t have to ask
you know where to look

how to hide
without seeming to

you were born knowing
how to amuse

if I had a son
he would not be you

if I had a girl
she would not be me

the rare thing you’ve learned
is to let the day go

things I say you will not remember
what is true now may not always be true     but they say

when you look at a photograph of a person
you can love that person

this is in us
it does not disappear

~

This poem was originally published in The Vivian Poems: Street Photographer Vivian Maier (Radiant Press 2020).