Burns Park / 250 S Colorado Parking

Click for map: Burns Park / 250 S Colorado Parking / lat 39.71118817875857 lon -104.94099911529163

Call 720-845-5413 extension 35 to hear this dream.

In the center of the grassy field sits a huge pile of old photographs, some with rounded edges, some so faded that the colors have almost entirely whitened, leaving only the outlines of young parents holding disoriented babies or children standing uncomfortably in formal clothes. Some of the photographs are brittle black & white images on thick paper, creased & torn, people holding stiff postures, staring into the camera unsmilingly. People walk into the park & approach the hill of photographs. Each reaches into a pocket & pulls out their own old photograph & adds theirs to the pile. Three people in coveralls & hardhats work to keep the hill of photographs tidy, scooping shovelfuls of photographs & tossing them atop the hill. As you near the hill of photographs, you slip your hands into your pockets & find them full of old photographs. You pull out dozens of pictures of you as a child, as a baby, as a newborn with still-squinting eyes, in the arms of strangers you do not recognize. You’ve never seen any of these photographs before & as you look through them you feel a great tenderness toward who you were at the moments these photos were taken. You select one photograph of yourself, standing on the side of a group of fellow kids, all lined up & smiling obediently for the camera. You drop this photograph on the pile. One of the works dips their shovel in & tosses your photograph, along with hundreds of others high up into the air & on top of the giant hill of photographs. As you walk away a horse trots up to you & stops in front of you. You hold your palm out to the horse & the horse nestles her nose into your palm. You scratch the horse behind her ears. She closes her eyes & leans in to your scratches.