Saying Goodbye

The Thursday Think Tank prompt at Poets United is : Goodbye

Immediately, I thought of this photo, of my grandparents, my mother, (center, back row), and my aunts and uncles, whom I thought were as glamorous and sophisticated as movie stars back then, when they were in their heydey. All departed now, except for my Uncle Don, (on the far left, back row), still alive, still blonde, still handsome at eighty. At Christmas, Lori and I watched the family video, all of those heartbreakingly vital years, when death and partings were the farthest thing from all of our lives. There is one take where everyone had gathered at my grandparents' little cottage on Christleton Avenue. Two by two the couples come out the front door to smile into the camera, and the grandkids, and then my Grandma and Grandpa. Everybody beaming happily and innocently into the camera, all thankfully unaware of what the years ahead would bring.

Out the door they come,

two by two,

the glamorous aunts and uncles,

all smoking,

with drinks in their hands,
(it was the 60's),

all beautiful.

We kids thought they were

the height of cool.

Into the camera they smile,

happily innocent

of the futures that lay in wait.

The grandkids are smiling too.

Now we all have

turned into grandparents

and so many of those 

dearly loved faces

in the blurring film

are gone.

We couldn't know it then

but as the camera caught 

their brightly smiling faces,

they were already saying

Goodbye.