Writing prompt #6: FAMILY PHOTOS

Hi Everyone,

Recently, I was rereading the work of Brazilian poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade when I came across his poem “Family Portrait.” It describes a dusty old family photo and how much it both reveals, and conceals, about the relatives captured on film twenty years earlier.

It ends with these words: “… All I grasp is the strange idea of family traveling through the flesh.”

Not too long ago, my father sent me this:

(It’s a tiny square of my face on a re-entry permit issued by the U.S. Department of Justice in 1973 when I was fourteen years old. My height is noted as 5 feet, 0 inches. I don’t remember ever having this document in my possession—or being that short, for that matter.)

YOUR PROMPT (AND MINE):

Find an old family photo of yourself, of yourself with others, even of relatives or situations you barely remember. Instead of trying to piece together what actually happened, make up a story of what might’ve happened. Give yourself over to any and all wild imaginings, fresh identities, you name it. Anything goes.

Above all, enjoy yourselves!

Abrazos,

Cristina

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