Selfie

In a locked desk drawer

I found a camera

Leather ever-ready case

Green-moulded, cracked

It opened, stiffly

Carefully-capped, lens

Flecked with fungus, 

Viewfinder, last held

To a dead man’s eye

I lifted it to mine

And saw only ghosts

The focus ring

Locked to a lost face or landscape

Exposure set

One five-hundredth of a second

At f16

Some bright day 

A huge overwhelming light

My fingers found the catch

The case sprang open

On a forgotten film

Too slowly, I closed the door

On an obliterated past.