The Captain's Verses - La Reina

"I have named you queen.
There are taller ones than you, taller.
There are purer ones than you, purer.
There are lovelier than you, lovelier.

But you are the queen.

When you go through the streets
no one recognizes you.
No one sees your crystal crown, no one looks
at the carpet of red gold
that you tread as you pass,
the nonexistent carpet.

And when you appear
all the rivers sound
in my body, bells
shake the sky,
and a hymn fills the world.

Only you and I,
only you and I, my love,
listen to it."


While I was looking through my archive a few days ago, I realized I hadn't saved any of the black-and-white images from this shoot.
Alan-H-Bruce came to the rescue, and sent me the new link to this shoot's gallery.

This image was taken at the end of the shoot, and an hour of posing on rocks and rough tree bark had taken its toll on my very, very fair skin. The large red mark on my hip led me to pass over this photo the first few times I saw it, but three years later, I stopped to take another look.
BH was kind enough to convert it for me
and the second I saw it, I knew.

One of the many lessons that unfolds as the years pass, and one of my favorites, is this: perceptions change with the passage of time. You can look at a photo, watch a movie, meet a person over and over and over again, and discover something new with each encounter.
Stories sit half-finished in desk drawers for years, until the ending comes to you.
And, in my case, you can know someone for half your life without realizing that the ingredients for love are there, lying dormant until the moment is right.
It just takes time.