Black and white photos In a dusty album

Владимир Свердлов
Black and white photos
In a dusty album
In my hand that froze
While searching for the glasses;
My eyes look through the years
And time that stopped its passes
To let me see those pictures -
In black and white - they say so.

        They say so, but I know
        There's something else for me.
        The sailing boat they row
        Returned from a stormy sea

        The wall that separated
        The now from old then
        Just made a little cranny
        For memories again.

        And only I can see them
        In color and bright light -
        Those old and cracked pictures -
        They see in black and white...

        Sunsets in murky oceans,
        And shiny dotty stars.
        I'm feeling old emotions
        My memory - my scars.

        Old patina on brasses,
        I'm peering through the mist
        My magic reading glasses -
        How could I so resist?

        It's dark. It's late. Night's coming
        I put them off on a desk.
        I'm here. My surrounding
        No more than just grotesque

        The old and dusty album
        The black and white old prints...
        It's more than my asylum -
        It's keeping time.
For me.

    .............
The old and dusty album,
Black and white photos.
Keeping the time
On the shelf.