Jill McKeowen #13 photo 4

‘Punctum’ is...a detail which attracts me...a kind of subtle beyond...*

Here’s my Dad a month off fifty, stopped

by our flat in a rush on his way to work,

looking (always) respectable in suit,

collar and tie, the brylcreem-armoured

hair still thick and black, combed back

neat as a pin except for one strand

standing up and looping in the part;

in the photo now, my eye is drawn to this

and the psychology of his tie,

a plaid pattern of busy stripes and dots

in caramel, black and white; he has to go,

yet obliges me by looking into the lens and I

would not have seen at the time, but now I think

his brown eyes are tender floating there  

behind those big square 80s glasses

flecked with distractions of morning light

in gold glancing off the room,

and his gentle off-guard smile reveals

love (always) there behind purpose.

*Barthes, Camera Lucida