Bathtub Families

‘Language is better than reality’
writes poet Billy Collins
in his poem Bathtub Families.

Photography, too,
is also often better than reality.

It can be blurrier, brighter, more colourful,
greyer and bleaker if you want it to be,
and far more interesting
than the real thing.

I confess I often find the real thing
a bit boring
so if you could refrain
from telling me about it
(unless you want to tart it up a bit)
that would be great.

Needless to say
this family of strangers,
(I’ve convinced myself they’ve never met before)
Frank, Ian, Janet, Audrey

are more than happy to stand side by side
on the edge of this particular bathtub
and talk incomprehensibly to one another
in four different languages
while Frank does his best

to capture a creature
that may
or may not
turn out to be a crab.


Edit: great response from my friend Barrow Bard

I promise not to tell you about my lower back pain
Or the way my mother mistreated the dog
I had lovingly brought in from the rain
That day my father lost his thumb
I know how boring it is to hear of these things
And I'd never succumb to the way
Those old dears repeat their disappointments
And fears at the bus stop. Well, must stop now
Got to get on. See you again!