Monday, May 16, 2011

Snapshotland - Sylvia Kantaris

In Snapshotland everyone is happy all the time.
It is the promised land where people sit with flasks of tea
On smooth sand by a flat sea and smile and smile and smile.

The sun shines all day long and every day in Kodachrome
Or sepia on sandboys and sandgirls who never
Stop smiling from the time they first appear, with buckets,
In crisp, gingham pinfores and nonnets on the sea-shore.

Lovers stay in love forever, married couples never
Grow tired of each other; everything is always just right.
The dolphins know exactly when to leap into the air
And stay there for the permanent delight of passengers
Aboard the pleasure-boat which never passes out of sight.

Nobody in Snapshotland grows old unless they want to,
Juding by the way they go on smiling so, in deck-chairs,
On the beach, or in old-fashioned gardens with lavender
And grandchildren here and there - and no one dies, ever.

Even if they don't appear later, the people are still
Always there, smiling through the lavender and dolphins
And the buckets full of pebbles on the same sea-shore.

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