These pictures I stare at
Look back at me.
I wonder, sometimes,
What do pictures see?

Have I changed at all?
Or have I stayed just the same
As that girl in the pictures
Who shares my name?

Is this where she hoped
She would be in the world?
That smiling, vibrant,
Lighthearted girl.

Did she hold onto her dreams,
Her morals, her faith?
Or has that hope faded,
Leaving no trace?

There’s that picture on the beach
Where she reads a book in the sand
Or the one where she stands with
Her family hand in hand.

Little do these
Stilled moments know,
She can still hear those waves
Rolling as the wind blows.

She can still feel
The chill of that rapid, blue creek
As her toes and the water
Reluctantly meet.

These moments were captured
But they never stopped time.
They piled up like shells
That the tide left behind.  

The current is constantly
Shaping the shore.
She won’t always be
Who she was before.

But one day she’ll be looking
At pictures again
That don’t always show
Who she is within.

Eventually she’ll be able
To look back and say,
You would be happy
With who you are today.