Earliest Memory

A camera shutter snaps Capturing my earliest memory My great-grandfather is in the back Standing complacent, a lesson a long life Had taught him. A younger I Smiling at the world And everything in it. Careless, overjoyed, the innocence of childhood. Never thinking only feeling I run among his garden Red tomatoes shining in The noonday sun His garden bountiful With a future harvest. My parents behind me The only time I remember Them together. Innocence lost, never to be Regained