Len Webster's ' 'we Don't Take Photographs Any More' ' Poem by Len Webster

We don't take photographs any more.
The routine is too familiar.
Or perhaps we want to keep ourselves secret.
We know each other too well for more deception,
The childish thoughts drowned in the unexpected twists
That mangle hopes and ambitions.

The dreams, in part fulfilled,
Were better left as dreams.
We were not prepared for the detritus
Dragged along in our wake.
Your tears welled up when you thought of this
And mine were carefully hidden
Beneath the sad goodbye
As you were wheeled away.

I'd taken my camera for a final picture,
The two of us together nearly thirty years on,
But this was no longer needed.
The water in your eyes said it all
And inside my head I drowned in a shared sorrow
That had grown old and far beyond our dreams.