"Si jeunessa sav ait..."
Leaning into the truck,
grinning into the camera,
they camp out in their adolescence
and my front yard
with the insolent charm
of young colts,
sleek with knowing,
wobbly with experience.
The moment I shoot them
I know this is it:
for grace of limb,
studied slouch
the matching dew rags,
rakish hat I wish I could wear.
After the click
they come back to life as if
the magic just goes on.
The truck jolts into gear and,
with careless wave of hands,
they're gone.
For Dylan, Jonathan, Chris and Phil
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Carolyn Pettit Pinet was born in South Wales and grew up in Oxfordshire, England. She is winner of an Allen Ginsberg Prize for Poetry and a Pushcart Prize nominee. She received her Ph.D. in Spanish Literature from King’s College, London University in 1973 and taught in the Department of Modern Languages at Montana State University from 1981 to 2011. She has lived in Bozeman for 33 years. "The Happy Campers" was published in her 2014 collection Tangos, Tamaracks, and the Other Woman.