First-Day-of-School Picture

Today, I dropped them off at school,
And later today, their picture makes me
look for them--a limp forerunner of our future

On Facebook,
it's people swearing (like with &%$# words)
how unbelievably big they've gotten

It's people remembering the 17-year-old
as a two-year-old clutching my hand
by the elevators

I want to lie down in the middle of my office,
close my eyes, and try to remember for myself
the years that are now ghosts

I swear they're the same from day-to-day
nevermind the stranger interpretations
my camera conjectures from year to year

*