A Friend of a Friend

A friend of a friend of a friend
(b/c how would I know?)
told me that nowadays
school pictures are taken twice:
once in the fall, the traditional way,
and once in the spring.

The school pictures taken in the spring
are by a more professional studio with forest-like
backgrounds, and the child can even bring in a small
toy or stuffed animal.

The studio takes these portraits, often w/o parental consent,
prints off the pictures in adorable sets
and sends home the packets with the child.

The parents look at the pic,
buy only the sheets they want,
and send any pictures they don't want back to the school,
through the child,
to be shredded. Shredded.

Yeah.

The friend of a friend of a friend?
Her little boy just started Kindergarten this year
and has a wee little incisor sticking out of his wee little grin
super-imposed against a magical forest of Neverland.

Shredded. Not everyone can afford XXX.XX at the drop of smile.
Another little girl in kindergarten,
the rumor goes,
lost her mother (a single mom at that) to diabetes this year . . .
I wonder if her picture will have to be shredded too . . .