Back in the day
Polaroids ruled
Instamatic cameras
A click
A flash
The whir of soon-to-be seen snapshot ejection
Wait
Look? Don’t look!
Just a peek? A glimpse
Darkroomless development
Right before your eyes
A 70’s miracle beheld by a corner between thumb and forefinger
Now these relics remain only in albums of yellowing, acidic, cellophane covered pages
Crammed in basement boxes
Fading with the passage of time
As memories do
In this day and age
Digital’s the default
Darkroomless, instantaneous development
Smile!
Point and shoot
Again.
Again.
Again. Again. Again.
Againagainagainagainagain
Until the tiny screen reveals perfectly posed and poised pixels
Keep or delete decisions deferred
Photoshop covers a multitude
Filters fix foibles
Malleable memories
Preserved not on self-adhesive cellophane
But in cyberclouds and on SD cards
Not fading, still fleeting
Our development
Not instamatic or instantaneous
Beheld in God’s hands
Forget filters
Foibles forgiven
Purposeful, pixelated perfection
Given glimpses of glory
What is now blurred
Shall become clear
Be patient, my child
All is developing as it should