Family Snapshot

Afterwards we will
look at it and say

remember how he surrendered,
laughing, to his tribe of seventeen
and our dream of having him
see the beach one last time—

how he settled back
on the contraption we had rigged up:
wicker armchair lashed to old sunfish masts
to form a rustic palanquin?

Off we marched in triumphant procession—
the first of many more, or so we thought—
carrying our patriarch down
the steep sandy bank.

We held our breath on the incline,
so careful to keep him level, not tip him out,
then gently lower him onto the sand
to complete the circle around the fire.

The waves of low tide lapped the shore,
the fire lit our faces red and gold,
and we held still while the shutter snapped
capturing that moment

when we did not know where
we would be looking back from.

—Clyde Watson

Seed: “afterwards we will look at it and say,” and “when we did not know where we would be looking back from”

Source: “Standing at the Shore,” by Ellen Steinbaum

Clyde Watson is best known for her award-winning children’s books, including Father Fox’s Pennyrhymes, which was a National Book Award runner-up. She is also the composer of original music that appears in three of her books. She has written scripts for several theater groups, including The Christmas Revels and the Summer Revels. In 2005 she was commissioned to write a script entitled Masque of The Golden Bowl, featured in five outdoor performances at the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site. She is the editor of Waterfront New York: Images of the 1920s & ‘30s, written and illustrated by Aldren A. Watson, published in November 2014. She is a member of the Author’s Guild of America, which hosts her website.