The Third Face in the Photograph.(Poem)

 
THE THIRD FACE IN THE PHOTOGRAPH 
 
   Posed by the photographer 
   from The Sydney Morning Herald 
   for an article to appear 
   in "Summer Agenda", 
   I stand behind my seated mother 
   in the front garden 
   of the house 
   that was my home 
   until I moved away in 1967. 
 
   "No, it's not right," 
   says the photographer, a Cork man. 
   "You need to be holding 
   something ... A book, yes. 
   Have you got 
   a book With you?" 
 
   I go and bring 
   the only book I have in my car-- 
   the Selected Poems 1965-75 
   of an Irish poet. 
   Without knowing it, 
   I hold the book, front cover out. 
 
   My mother sits in clothes 
   she's made herself. 
   She has combed her hair. 
   Her hands are folded, 
   palms up, as if meditating. 
   You can seethe bent fingers. 
   The veins are like roots 
   reaching into soil. 
   Although she's smiling, 
   her seventy-nine-year-old face 
   ...