The Photo Album

They were children
then and now

Woman, man, together
remove the photo album
from its capsule
On front reads his
nervous handwriting, now only
shakier with time, and her’s,
through age,
grown bolder in its softness,
most elegant of Sharpie,
the same scrawls they’d send
over thousands of miles,
to lessen the gap there once was

Hands now shared, they flip
through this gift from their past,
present of retrospection
Held in each snapshot
are the smiles of old
Anchored as one to the memories,
they look forward
from those earlier days,
to the fulfilled promises
their youthful smiles foretold.