Milkshakes at the ice-cream parlor,
Remnants in a metal cup,
Served alongside the frilly glass.
With coffee at my desk,
And all other matters set aside. Truth and falsehood
In my innocent days,
Starkly setting each other off and apart. A plate of sandwich cookies–
Pulling them apart,
Scraping the inside off with my teeth. Movies from the 1930’s–
Greta, Cary, Katharine, Randolph, Clark…
Adding some gray to test the Code. Image on a small rectangle,
Up way past bedtime on school nights,
Enchanting, beguiling…so distant now. I cherish black and white.
Photo credit: Bruno Scramgnon of Pexels
Real Teaching 
Beautifully rendered. I note a repetition of setting aside… as if seeing priorities plainly, figuratively, not to mention memories, like childhood photos, in black and white. I have black-and-white photos of my little granddaughters in silver frames on my mantel simply because I love the aesthetics. You remind me (somehow) that I’ve wanted to write about old negatives (remember them – horrid orange things in which the opposite light-dark images looked like scary life forms from another planet?)
Well, you saw right through to the core on that one. This was a poem I needed to write. There are things to hold onto and things to float free from. I appreciate when you read my pieces–thanks.
That idea about the negatives intrigues me. I hope you write about them.
My favorite : the crossword puzzle, with coffee, all other things set aside to savor the words and the brew. Oh, but the milkshakes and cookies – those are a very close second. Sometimes those things that seem so distant make their way back through a picture or memory or menu choice…..and off we go, remembering. This is beautiful! I love the things you cherish in black and white as a poem.
Wow! Thanks, Kim! I had no way of knowing whether anything would resonate with people who read this. This is encouraging!