By Kim Farrar

She turns twenty-seven tomorrow
so I set the old photo on my desk
to look into her blue eyes and guess.

She’s standing next to the park bench
and peering directly into the camera; what they say
about eye contact was never true in her case.

Her fingers gently grip Elmo’s well-loved neck
but he’s looking backwards at the swings
where younger mothers plot secret parties.

Perhaps they didn’t appreciate
how I had to yell a thousand times
for Laura to stay out of the mud.

The breeze lifts blonde strands above her ears,
her home-cut bangs tousled, a few wisps
curving upward at the top of her head.

The leaves must have rustled
as I snapped the picture.
That easy wind with the future on its tail.

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Kim Farrar is a writer and collage artist. Her debut poetry collection, The Impossible Physics of the Hummingbird, is forthcoming in November of 2025 from Unsolicited Press. Her essay “Why I Never Get Anywhere . . .” won first prize in New Millennium Writings Creative Nonfiction Contest. Her poems and essays have appeared in several literary journals. For more about her work, please check out her website at Poetrysite.blog.