Inner Three

Inner Three
by john clare

Some of the most compelling photographs I felt I was able to make while Melanie was in Orlando and later here at the Woodlands Rehab and Nursing home in Gainesville. The pathos of the patients was pitifully sad.
I speculated upon these three in the dining room, left alone in their thoughts.

I was once a boy of ten
the second son of five
two sisters too
we would walk down the dirt road
to the country store
we were poor
but I didn't need anything more
than to be with family.

I once was a lady of twenty
we lived in a world of plenty
father married a woman of means
never dreamed
all that money
could buy all this loneliness.

I was a painter of portraits
for hours the subjects would sit
their memories to make
mostly I just stare at the pictures
and wonder
who remembers them.