TINTYPES

Dedicated to my ancestors

Faces frozen in sepia tone

and bound between brown leather covers

like fossils preserved in layered stone,

men, women and children stand somber

and stark as the obstinate prairie

they tilled while increasing their number.

More fruitful were they than the grim earth,

yet yielded to it one by one. They

lie decayed 'neath wind-blown dirt,

obscured in shrouds of attic dust,

but living still in blood that pulses

through beneficiaries of their lust.

Reviews

[Samuel Dickens]

I still recall one my aunts pulling ancient tintype photos from an old trunk and, with great enthusiasm, showing them to the 4 or 5 year-old me. "Now, Sammy, this is your great..." At the time, I was more interested in the strangeness of those very stiff photos than who was in them. Now that I'm no longer young, I'd love to see them once again. (And scan them) Alas, no one knows (or admits to knowing) who got them when she died. Your poem is excellent in every way and stirs my own memories of dusty trunks and faces frozen in sepia tone.

[Lea Sheryn]

I find sepia photographs to be quite intriguing. I enjoyed reading this one.

[Renée]

A love of mine is Genealogy, your piece sings to that part of my heart, those tintypes, yes! Your closing verse completes this piece perfectly!

[...]

You have very moving lines of your poem. I cam feel.echoing past through the words. Ancient history of old school times. Its feel more wrote at 19 century then now. It's very refreshing writing for Web site like this. Keep writing.

[Kelly Scheppers]

A sweet nostalgia to days long gone, now in shrouds of attic dust. When I read this, it made me think of my grandmother, who was born back in 1902. I am not familiar with the "tintype" photos, but I do have black and whites with scalloped edges. Like you, I treasure them deeply! Beautiful read, Catherine.

[John the Baptist]

Well, without Netflix, I guess they didn't have much else to do on those long, dark nights.

[HadesRising]

Interesting piece. Well Done.