Looking At A Photograph Of My Wife As A Teenage Girl Poem by Raj Dronamraju

Looking at a photograph of my wife as a teenage girl
Class photo, well-liked by her peers, slightly chubby, schoolgirl uniform
Flashing the same smile that hooked me years later

We did not meet too late
You were young and familial and I was angry
Angry about working instead of playing
Angry about rejection
Angry about those who drop bombs
I could not have known you the way I know you now

So we met when time's grooves locked
And the rightness of discussion and union was felt rather than justified

Looking at a photograph of my wife as a teenage girl
And I think of my young self as opposite, frowning, giving off unhappiness like body odor
I wish I could have known her happiness at that age
But happy that she now shares with me what she had at that age