1
Snapshot (snap.shot) n-s. 1. A light
that blinked like a heartbeat when his
mother held the camera to her breast.
- A trim fit in a tight place on a piece
of coated paper. 3. A picture of a boy
behind the glass, as flat in its frame
as a window with a fingerprint on it,
if only he could turn to the touch.
- How a motorboat sped by a row
of summer cottages, and the camera
caught the crest of a wave that crashed.
2
Snapshot (snap.shot) n-s. 1. A boy
snatched by a small plastic “instamatic”
camera. 2. The one in a cotton shirt
and a pair of shorts before he set the hook,
the bobber stopped, and the net stretched
from now to then. 3. How his mother
framed his face with her hands when he
asked if I still loved him. 4. The way
a cloud above a lake and a boat in a dock
brought it back when it was utterly still.
3
Snapshot (snap.shot) n-s. 1. A flash
and click of a hand-held camera like
a box for the eye with a button on it.
- The lens that enlarged a boy who
blinked and cried when I backed out
of the driveway, the marriage to his
mother and their lives. 3. A picture
in a frame on the table as if the past
and present remain in the same place,
or home a house in the background.
- The child I thought I left behind
until I caught him crying again.
