---

 

This writing was accepted for publication in the 108-page perfect-bound ISSN#/ISBN# issue/paperback book “The New Normal” cc&d, v321 (the May 2022 issue) Order the 6"x9" paperback book:

Order this writing in the book The Wall the cc&d May-August 2022 magazine issues collection book		get the 426-page May-August 2022 cc&d magazine 6" x 9" ISBN# perfect-bound paperback book:

Order this writing in the book Running Out of Time the 2022 poetry, flash fiction, prose, & art collection anthology		get the one-of-a-kind poetry, flash fiction, prose, artwork & photography collection anthology as a 6" x 9" ISBN# paperback book:

Film Camera Days

David J. Thompson

I’m not exactly sure where we were then,
not even certain if we were headed
out west or back home east, but I think
it was South Dakota, somewhere out there
between the Badlands and Sioux Falls.
We came across this old rodeo arena,
or maybe it was a little stock car track,
in the middle of all that prairie nowhere.
I pulled off the highway, started up
the bumpy road leading to its parking lot.
What are you doing? my ex-wife Cathy asked.
Thought I’d try to take a few pictures,
I answered. Look at the sky. That blue.
All those clouds. It’ll be a perfect background.
Oh, she said, looking back to her magazine,
Don’t take all day, ok?

I walked around slowly, snapping photos,
probably I think now, of rusted signs and
a sad and sagging ticket booth. I bet I got
some good ones, too, but this was back
in the old film camera days, and all that stuff,
the negatives and the contact sheets, lost
in the all the break ups and moves and
crammed storage units since then.

As we drove away, Cathy was going through
our cd case, but couldn’t find anything she liked.
How much longer? she asked. Not much, I said,
staring up at the sky through the windshield
at clouds so perfectly white and low I thought
I could reach up and just grab one of them,
see and feel the damn thing right there close up
in my hands, but back then, I guess, I still believed
there were things I could hold onto.

Copyright of written pieces remain with the author, who has allowed it to be shown through Scars Publications and Design.Web site © Scars Publications and Design. All rights reserved. No material may be reprinted without express permission from the author.

Problems with this page? Then deal with it...