Circa 1929

This photograph of my newborn mother
being held on one side by an Athens nurse
with the headgarb of what could be an angel,
and on the other side by my Yaya, herself
almost still a girl at 21,

the child swaddled and held as if blessed
between them. Light from the tall window
is fierce still, 95 years later; 
and I can’t stop staring, 
as if seeing a pathway opening 

from that moment to now, 
I am a living dream 
before a dream in my mother’s cells, 
the image might be saying: here
is one of the beginnings of your life.  

~

Photograph suppled by the poet.