Life lines

she took my hands in hers

fell silent as she saw

my lifelines

bisected as they are

by irrevocable fate

I said 

i know don't worry

it will be suddden death for me

I am ready

better than surfing on a bedpan

years ago

a seer had the same shock

on seeing the lines in my hands

like the bones thrown on the deck

that fortold the mutiny

that was when I was freed

whirling end over end

not worring any more

if i was on the right road

or the wrong road

a mahatma showed me

if one is sincere

and seeking

the truth

there is no wrong road

Benjamin Magro is a working Maine photographer/writer. Born in Ohio in 1952, he moved to Maine in the early 1970s and began working as a photographer at a weekly local newspaper.

Since that time he has worked for many clients and publications while operating a studio, first in Camden and later in Belfast. His photographs have been published in state and national publications, including The Chicago Tribune, The Christian Science Monitor, The New York Times Sunday supplement, Horticulture, Yankee, National Geographic Traveler and Down East magazine. In addition to editorial assignments, Ben produces commercial photographs for clients throughout Maine and New England.

He currently lives in Appleton and is working on various editorial and commercial assignments.

Transformations
We tell stories.
We tell stories to make sense of our lives.
We tell stories to communicate our experience of being alive.
We tell stories in our own distinct voice. Our own unique rhythm and tonality.

Transformations is a weekly story-telling column. The stories are written by community members who are my students. Our stories are about family, love, loss and good times. We hope to make you laugh and cry. Maybe we will convince you to tell your stories.
— Kathrin Seitz, editor, and Cheryl Durbas, co-editor

"Everyone, when they get quiet, when they become desperately honest with themselves, is capable of uttering profound truths. We all derive from the same source. There is no mystery about the origin of things. We are all part of creation, all kings, all poets, all musicians; we have only to open up, only to discover what is already there." — Henry Miller

Kathrin Seitz teaches Method Writing in Rockport, New York City and Florida. She can be reached at kathrin@kathrinseitz.com. Cheryl Durbas is a freelance personal assistant in the Midcoast area. She can be reached at cheryldurbas@tidewater.net.