When I Visit My Grandmother (A Poem)
i don’t know what time it is
because my grandmother has built a library
the library covers the counters,
the tables,
the sofa,
the chairs
stacks of her past,
stacks of another time,
rise upon each surface
i ask her often–
‘grandmother, what is this?’
‘grandmother, why hold onto this?’
‘grandmother, why keep this?’
and she hums within her labyrinth of leather-bound books
and encyclopedias
and dusty trunks
and old stage memorabilia
her eyes,
rich in images only she can see
her eyes,
baby blue, carrying spring
her eyes,
hushed,
as she converts ghosts into words
to help me understand
the stacks
of
another
time
— — —
puttering in her gentle way
she explains how
she traveled the world
expelling a fur coat in my arms,
“it will fit you,” she says
she weaves her hands in
and out of cabinets
propagating silverware, dishes,
cookware of various sizes
“I always liked to bake with this one,”
she laughs, holding a giant spoon
wooden &
scarred,
i imagine it flour-dusted,
faithful to her,
in her generations of bread
when i first learned about God,
i pictured my grandmother;
her hands outstretched
to pour sweet syrup
over pancakes
or easiness upon
dim shoulders
i imagine it again as she settles
her collections into a box.
into a box for me.
— — —
next,
a yearbook from 1942
cover-to-cover of pin curls
and tailored suits,
gentlemen and ladies
in wartime glamour
‘and there he is’, she says pointing
black-hair slicked back.
it’s her father,
shining like a star.
with her finger against the photograph
her face opens, unjaded
and juvenile,
beneath
her wiser
skin
— — —
quiet walkways unearth organically
amid her archives, rising
on either side of us.
i walk carefully,
step-by-step along
the frayed edges
of her befores
hazy light seeps
where it can,
contouring us
like specters guided by
a gibbous moon
and within this library,
nestled beneath the
aroma of old books,
confined
to crooked shadows &
billowing dust,
hides a mantle clock
both hands–
lifeless.
silent.
succumbed.
i don’t know what time it is.
origamiaround
titsay
turnnoffyourmind
gummygunk
