NaPoWriMo Day 2

(I did write this on April 2 - honest! - but didn’t have time to post it here.)

Prompt: a family portrait

The only photo I have of my great-grandmother shows a very stern-looking woman …

Old photograph

Sitting so stiff and straight,

the great-grandma I never met

stares at the camera

down the years

towards me.

And these are her children,

only names on the family tree

except this young girl

who became

dear, old Nan.

I recognise her face,

but not the prim and proper pose

or solemn gaze so

unlike the

one I knew.

‘Ah, the old days,’ she said,

and laughed at the memories she shared.

‘Yes, times were hard, and yet,

we did have

such larks!’

I see a new picture.

Photographer nods, mother smiles,

children blink and stretch.

They did it.

They kept still

for a whole minute!

It needs tidying up, but I'm quite pleased with it.