For any relative in the photo, never a clue.
Arriving in (say) 1910, each
Knew the others by face and handshake, kiss.
Obvious truth didn’t deserve a note or name
On the back of the print, not with every road
In (say) the universe leading away from you.
Now, one uncle’s as good as another.
But they knew, think how hugely they knew.
Look to the moon for a second example. As today,
Shadows are crossing the basin of (say) Clavius –
Uncle or elm, the flower, the fox, all
Happily unwitnessed, perfectly themselves, nothing
To do with isolation or time, certainly not.
And it’s like that all around us. Almost everything.
