Shoulders back,
chin up high,
I'm trying to look normal,
but this ID tells a lie,
and it is making me look
like a criminal.

This photo is ideal
with a serial number
on a mugger's profile,
on a database all alone.
My identity is distilled to this:
a stranger with a face of stone.

The camera captured everything
except my personality,
my smile, my kind eyes
and what makes me, me.
As my face became a moment,
falsified for bureaucracy.

©️Lizzie Bevis

one good pose, one good picture
the perfect timing
perfect conditions
clouds lined up
as the planets do
he puts his arm around her shoulders
and they talk
gazing over the cityscape
as if they're the only people in the world

he's no gentleman
he's no man
she tells us stories
of his lies
we listen because
why wouldn't we?
we are them in physical form
a reminder of
why they're together
in the first place

i snap a photo, a couple more
i don't dare
utter a distraction.