the rule of thirds

by Darci Schummer

Amongst your many things

your father discovers

undeveloped film
“I think this is

actually yours,” he writes
on a note folded into a plastic case

holding the disc onto which 

another life of mine has been digitized.

In the pictures my young legs

stretch out from a pink bathrobe

I put on shimmering eye makeup

I wear my red winter coat 

the one with a faux fur collar

and too-short sleeves.

I smile, laugh, purse my lips

“Stop taking my picture,” my face says

as the camera watches me

your eye behind it capturing the bones of our love. 

For days I don’t stop looking and looking.

You taught me the rule of thirds 

how to compose a photo just so.

But now I know 

to account for what lies beyond the frame.

Darci Schummer is the author of the story collection Six Months in the Midwest (Unsolicited Press), co-author of the poetry/prose collaboration Hinge (broadcraft press), and author of the forthcoming novel The Ballad of Two Sisters (Unsolicited Press). Her fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared in Ninth Letter, Folio, Jet Fuel Review, MAYDAY, Matchbook, Necessary Fiction, Sundog Lit, and Pithead Chapel, among many other places. She teaches at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College where she serves as faculty editor of The Thunderbird Review.