Old Home Movies

I look in the lens, curved black glass
expect to see myself, upside-down, reversed, fisheye distorted.

Instead, in grainy super-8 footage
there’s a curly-headed kid running around among dunes

on a breezy day at Virginia Beach
in March 1970, under the track of the solar eclipse.

She plays in the sand and grass.
Her brother and father bend over the telescope together.

The sky will darken, bands of shadow
sweeping in from the west to swallow the sun; false dawn

will tint the horizon pink.
Behind the black moon, a dazzling corona.

She will burst into tears
from the glory of it all. I will carry that brilliance

forever.

Books Available
The Day of My First Driving Lesson
Country Well-Known as an Old Nightmare's Stable
High-Voltage Lines
Knocking from Inside