haiku,  People/Portraits,  Portraits,  writing/reading

Red Hair

November 30, 2020

red hair with freckles 
on a dare and not for love
innocent first kiss

ms

One perk of reaching 70 years of age is how many people I have encountered in life. Some I will keep as lifelong friends while some will only be a part of my life for a season or two. But, what I have from each of those encounters are memories and the awareness of how they changed my life in some way. I encountered a lot of people during my seven years working as flight attendant, both crew and passengers. And, I was lucky enough to photograph several of the flight attendants I worked with, both men and women. This young lady is Lori and the image was taken in 2009. Because she is outgoing and comfortable with herself we came away with some very good images. This is one of my favorites.

Now about the haiku. I wrote the haiku this past week while reflecting on a few experiences of my childhood. I started a project a a couple years ago to write a simple memoir for my grandchildren. One of those experiences needs to be the first kiss. The first kiss I remember was with my red haired neighbor, Carolyn. I’m suspecting I was 8 or 9 and she was 6 or 7. Her brother, one of my classmates, put us up to it with a dare. I’m posting this image of Lori because she has the red hair and the perfect amount of freckles to go along with my haiku and story.

Retired. Having fun with photography. Journal daily. Meditate daily. Learning haiku/poetry. Have a love for fountain pens.

4 Comments

  • Earl

    November 30, 2020 at 2:35 pm

    It’s a wonderful portrait of a lovely and attractive young woman, Monte.
    My hair is now reddish/brown with an ever-increasing majority of grey, but in my younger days, it was just a few shades darker than Lori’s. My first kiss was when I was a few years older than your experience, and it wasn’t from a dare, but still innocent. 😉

    • Monte Stevens

      November 30, 2020 at 6:59 pm

      My mother and youngest grandson are redheads as are several of my relatives. I relate to the grey hair. I’ve had streaks of it since high school. I thought it was refreshing to vaguely remember that first kiss. Hope it did the same for you.