You know the picture. <br />A pair of friends. <br />A group shot maybe. <br /> <br />Usually by a famous landmark, <br />an immense landscape <br />or on the steps of museum eating lunch. <br /> <br />But when the shutter froze the moment, <br />like an insect in ice, <br />the boy smiling - centre frame – <br />became a stooge, the punch-line of the joke. <br /> <br />The two flexed fingers raised behind his head <br />present an ass, a jack-rabbit – a jack-ass. <br /> <br />A photograph of friendship <br />intended to be cherished, now tinted <br />with the yellow haze of mockery. <br /> <br />And in the back of the scene, in a tree shaded café <br />rests an empty coffee cup, a stained steel spoon.<br /><br />Matthew Coombe<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-ears-2/
