Mamiya Model

Hiding behind a curtain
Like an eager child at play,
Her small white face, half hidden
Waits for me to stay.

Above her eyes a pale shade,
Subtle, tender, pallid-blue.
Her soft face
And auburn hair want
And wait for touch.

But suddenly she steals my hope—
She is only a celluloid print,
Shot with a Mamiya model RZ67
And printed on Kodak stock
By Charles R. Smith.

But isn’t she as real as all the girls
Who take and trade my glances,
Now and then,
On cold and lonely sidewalks?

Yet she stays there
On the paper,
Half hidden behind the curtain

Waiting.