I’m collecting photos for our wedding
Scrolling, scrolling through years–thin,
Bright, my nesting doll and all
Her outlines–a clear cut hole in the
Blue sky, edges on fire. From another
Life, this one. Some people we cannot find
On our phones, the closest. The closest
We have is her death photo. We
Can only imagine her as a child
Under the avocado tree, at her wedding
Her arms wrapped around her baby. Like a
Stencil cut out of pure sky.
Rachel Vinciguerra (she/her) is a poetry and prose writer and young adult cancer survivor. Selections of her poetry can be found in Rising Phoenix Review, Emerge Literary Journal, Hole in the Head Review, as a finalist in Lefty Blondie Press’s 2025 broadside series, and in her chapbook, A Mass of Feathers: Love Poems (Bottlecap Press 2024).
Image: “4th Street, Troy, NY” by Daniel Nester
Pine Hills Review 