Ninety-nine years ago an instant of time was snapped.

click-click

A picture of a life just beginning preserved by caring;
April 1926, rural Alabama. Her birth certificate denotes,
 in cursive, under Doctor-Midwife: Mrs. B.  A midwife 
or, who knows now, just by chance a caring neighbor?
 Is that the birthing sheet hung to dry in the background?

click-click 

See the slate-looking stones placed under the rockers and
the two pillows in dinge softness framing a newborn life; 
daughter, sister, mother; an endless array of assignations.   
See the leather covered seat... the rocker's an inside chair.
No flash bulbed cameras back then for poor farmer folks;
she had to be brought outside to face the sun...the glare 
of life's beginnings. See her tiny fingers grasping, searching
 for something to clutch, to squeeze...always...to cling to?

click-click