Photography Lesson, Pt. Reyes - Iris Jamahl Dunkle

[Larry Robinson]

Photography Lesson, Pt. Reyes
 
My father teaches me landscape
here, where the land itself can not decide
to which age it raises its stiff thumb.
 
I have a decision to make--
a few names to throw in the ocean.
 
We walk up the bare beach--
We look through a machine--
He says  don’t forget
you are looking through a machine.
 
Your emotions will ruin it.
 
The hills beyond are almost bald--
a lone raven marks in an arc their curve
then lands still in a nest of waves.
 
Ravens, he says, will never appear in pairs.
 
I push the shutter down
let the machine realize
what I have learned,
as something scares the bird to flight.
 
Why must stories overlap?  I ask
but my father is already walking,
the machine ticking faster
than waves can count.

	- Iris Jamahl Dunkle
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