Group photo

There’s a student photo that we kept
Where I am disembodied – 
Just a cut off forehead on the bottom edge
Which is bright white, glowing with overexposure,
As is the stranger who had joined the side of our group unnoticed,
Proffering a peace sign.

These days I doubt we would have saved this.
There’s no need now to wait for your image to emerge 
From a packet from Boots to see if it worked.
With digital you get instant do-overs,
Second shots with which to reframe memories in better lighting.
You can edit out the unwanted strangers.

But we did keep it,
And not only that, we made copies,
Duplicates of our less curated chaos.
An imperfect reminder of times
When we were figuring ourselves out and definitely weren’t perfect,
And almost certainly were pissed.

I am grateful that the overexposure there was just a part of the picture,
Being, as it was, a shade before the socials.
Maybe now the forgiveness is given too much to the photos
Rather than to the people within them.
We didn’t reshoot the photo, but I did have the space to regroup
At those points when inevitably, as a part of growing, I really did lose my head.

Hannah Going
February 2024