Fr. Ryan Sliwa

The Nikon

Wonder of a machine!

More dials and buttons

than a cockpit.

Triggered and heavy to hand,

like the action

of dad’s deer-killing .308.

This eye of mirrors, prisms,

and light-soaking silver;

an heirloom all memory.

The thing tells

what the sun sees once,

but free of the burden of words.

Ryan Sliwa is a parish priest who lives in rural Massachusetts. He's a graduate of St Anselm College and St John's Seminary. His poems have been featured in Ekstasis, Presence, and North American Anglican.