One Word Photo Challenge–In Which There Will Be Bokeh

Dear Lily June,

Your mother is no photographer and is barely a poet. But there was something about the concept of bokeh which spoke to me yesterday, a photographic term which refers to the aesthetic, intentional capturing of blur. Forgive me my little offerings, daughter. In the absence of wealth, words are the only treasure I can bequeath.

***

Last Wishes in Bokeh

for LJ

That firework that looks like a weeping willow of light?
When I die, pack my ashes—bone and tooth—into that hollow
body, let me go out with a burst across the night, your eyes,
their inextinguishable grin watching your mother’s flight.

When I die, pack my ashes—bone and tooth—into that hollow
stern, a paper lantern built like a boat, a pyre fit for fireflies,
their inextinguishable grin watching your mother’s flight.
Make mine a Viking funeral in reverse. I’ve already burned bright

as a stern, a paper lantern built like a boat, a pyre fit for fireflies.
Imagine I’m a moth drawn to a bare swinging bulb of moon.
Make mine a Viking funeral in reverse. I’ve already burned bright
as a bokeh blur in a photograph of this life, being your mother.

I am now a moth drawn to the bare swinging bulb of the moon’s
body. Let me go with a burst across the night, your eyes catching
a bokeh blur in a photograph of my life, seeing your mother
become that firework that looks like a weeping willow of light.

***

(And my apologies for being a day late–and always a dollar short–on the photo challenge! I probably got bokeh wrong anyway, so who cares if it’s not timely, eh?)

For what it’s worth, Lily, here’s a much better image of bokeh taken by a real photographer (credited below) and not your clueless mother. See how the blur makes up the background and not the foregrounded image? That’s more it.

Your mother: leaving beauty to the professionals since 1984.

Picture Credit:

• By Harald Hoyer from Schwerin, Germany – Glittering Icicles, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24324224