Voices

The Baltimore Sun

The loss of youth and innocence is one of the great themes of literature. Here the California poet Kim Noriega looks deeply into a photograph from 40 years ago.

- Ted Kooser

"Heaven, 1963"

It's my favorite photo -

captioned, "Daddy and His Sweetheart."

It's in black and white,

It's before Pabst Blue Ribbon,

before his tongue became a knife

that made my mother bleed,

and before he blackened my eye

the time he thought I meant to end my life.

He's standing in our yard on Porter Road

beneath the old chestnut tree.

He's wearing sunglasses,

a light cotton shirt,

and a dreamy expression.

He's twenty-seven.

I'm two.

My hair, still baby curls,

is being tossed by a gentle breeze.

I'm fast asleep in his arms.

Ted Kooser served as U.S. poet laureate, 2004-2006. Reprinted from "Blue Arc West: An Anthology of California Poets" (Huntington Beach, CA, Tebot Bach, 2006) with permission of the author and Tebot Bach. This column does not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

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