Stop Taking Pictures My daughter is telling me this Driving home from gymnastics. Stop taking pictures of me All of the time. Mom does it, you do it, Trying to capture the moment All of the time. She tells me this two weeks Before her eighth birthday. She tells me, Don’t you know pictures makes you forget? Don’t you know it means You remember the picture Instead of the memory? She is telling me these things As I try to change subjects To the full moon in front of us. Look at that, I tell her, I want to remember this moon. Don’t take a picture of it, she says. You won’t remember it the same. She is telling me this and saying, What if instead of taking pictures We got everyone in the city Agreeing all at once To turn off our lights And gather in a field. Artists can paint the blue sky blue, And the grownups can just relax, And it would all be so peaceful Looking up at the full moon. She is telling me these things. My child is telling me this. I do not take a picture. Unless, of course, this counts. I do not know if this counts. I no longer remember How to remember. She is telling me this.
Exactly and thank youuuu and your daughter!! I hope more people (kids, Gen will see this and hear part of the message. Even if the response is delayed by a few years.) I was just telling someone about how some cultures believe that taking a picture steals a part of your soul. I also think about how when I was a kid, people taller than would smile and beam at me. Human faces looking down and shining at me. Now they're all looking at the screens and the kids must be starved of the human photosynthesis!
Exactly and thank youuuu and your daughter!! I hope more people (kids, Gen will see this and hear part of the message. Even if the response is delayed by a few years.) I was just telling someone about how some cultures believe that taking a picture steals a part of your soul. I also think about how when I was a kid, people taller than would smile and beam at me. Human faces looking down and shining at me. Now they're all looking at the screens and the kids must be starved of the human photosynthesis!
I really like this poem, and these thoughts. Thanks for sharing Andrew!