The Photographer
and
The Migrant Mother

Geoffrey Callard

After picking beets in the Imperial Valley, 
the family were traveling 
on U.S. Highway 101 towards Watsonville.


I did not ask her name or her history. 
I don’t want to leave a mark
on her life – just our shadows 
merging for a moment. 

She told me her age, that she was 32
She said she could only breathe out 
when the family were sleeping,
her ribs rising like a fence line.

Earlier I watched her children
hunting rabbits, scavenging wood scraps 
to keep themselves warm. 

Her little boy drew me a picture
with charcoaled wood from the fire. 
Something shaped like a dog 
and then a house with no windows.

 
 

Note: Everything in italics is taken from a Wikipedia article about Florene Owens Thompson, the subject of the famous ‘Migrant Mother’ photo taken by Dorothea Lange. Although the photograph became a famous symbol of the Depression era, Florence’s identity was not known for over forty years. 

 

Geoff Callard is a New Zealand-born, Melbourne-based writer. He has had poetry published in over 20 journals across the globe and in a number of anthologies including Planet in Peril, Messages from the Embers and Poetry for the Planet. His chapbook, Other People’s Lives, was released this September through Kelsay Books.

 

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