grandmother
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Too beautiful to cry, she whispers,lingering softly instead,
Believing in me when no one else would is all that is said.
She molds me,teaches me,unconditionally loves,
Happy as a butterfly
Smart as a bee
The sugar to my tea
You were there for me
You watched me grow
And begged me to dance
As I jumped for the stars
From my heels to my tippy toes
You came to Iowa, married, divorced.
He wanted you to be small.
You wouldn’t have it. No one
can contain you,
Extraordinary woman.
The air becomes dry
and the wind stops mewling
familiar hymns that I stopped singing
So that I may talk to you
Feet dragging, limbs hanging, eyes distant in their sacks.
When old women's families send them here there is no looking back.
They heap their sorrows, pray for tommorows,
The halls are dark and dumb.
Nokomis
Isoäiti
Grandmother
but she was
so much more
she taught me
how to love
and to be loved
to be kind
learn as much as you can
My grandmother
An old woman who has lived out her days being generous and kind
My grandmother
Giving her time and life to us
My grandmother
Everything we have,
My grandmother says,
We owe to the rain—
I think less of her name,
Less of our history,
Dear Ma,
The eleventh of March
Nineteen seventy-nine
Baby born at this time
Little foot with an arch;
Her dark green eyes glistened
As she looked at her mom
Pat held her in her palm
I write this poem
To my grandmother
A sister, a friend,
A wife, A mother
The sweetest being
One could know
An uplifting spirit
If you were low
She wore that smile
There once was a lady
who had three beautiful daughters
And she loved each very much,
she said.
she raised them in a world of strife
Communist China was a mess
So she ran away to a safer place
in autumn i think of you.
the way a leaf browns,
curls up, and floats along wind,
rustle becoming tremor becoming fall—
Dear grandmother,
Promise
I will never get tired of loving
Every petal and thorn of
Your worn out body.
She had one job.
One simple job.
She must've went back for the basket.
... And her Fitbit.
Kids these days.
Steps don't count themselves,
You know.
If you don't get 10,000
double double, toil and trouble...
the firelight quivers with every rumble;
the old woman's hands stir up the pot;
the air is stale with the smell of rot--
My mother gave me a basket of food, a map
And the warning, “Remember your place in the food chain.”
I nodded and left, hood overhead
I remember when my grandmother used to bathe me in her pink granite 90s bathtub
She would pick me up a cup, laced with BPA, and fill it with lukewarm water
Never too hot, for it might harm the child
I'm sorry, I didn't mean to get so sick! When I was young, I had no idea, I would be sick, all I knew, is I wanted to be playing SUE and BETTY With my sister LOL the grown-up game, when I was nine.
Life and death
both in front of me
In an instant I can see through
sixty-nine years
I can see your mother
and your father
So much joy they must have had
the day that you entered the world
Last year I was at a funeral for my grandmother.
My strong, polish grandmother
Who grew up in Dachau concentration camp.
We all wept,
Me especially,
Rita June,
staring silent at Indiana snow,
robed up in a worn, old, pink throw
lights her cigarette by the kitchen window.
She squints and she licks her thin, blotted lips,
I was the type,
that held on,
expecting the worst,
unable to release myself,
from what I presumed was safe.
I would hid in the shadows,
waiting to be cleansed by the rain,
but,
Who am I?
Who was I?
Who will I be?
My mind wonders aimlessly as I see you lying at my feet
Though your troubles have ended my world stays troubled still
As I fight to attain all that for me you willed
Yellow and grey-
A sickly combination
For the skin of a prior beauty queen.
A machine to help you breathe,
And a face I hardly recognize.
But I always knew of the pain in my clan,
Of the burden that sat on the shoulders of my blood.
I learned to walk on thin ice
Never felt she was mine to feel
She went at 53,
And took a part of me
She probably didn’t know I’d come
But, too bad, life played her like a drum.
You are my sunshine,
My grandmother’s voice
is hushed by the foam of the waves.
Her fingers delicately reposition
a ringlet of hazelnut behind my ear.
The conductor raises his silver baton
Grandma lifts her silver spoon
The allegro commences: Illuminated by the tempo, the music lifts and spins
Under the fluorescent track lights the batter twirls and folds
I have grown to hate my grandfather.
I have grown to hate my grandfather.
I have grown to hate his smile.
I have grown to hate his smile that used to greet me with such kindness and authority.
My little love
so far above.
I do miss
your loving kiss.
The night is full of scars
without you my little star.
You were my rock
the key to my lock
I may be a monster
My grandmother just told me
That is wasn't her fault she was lonely.
She thinks she was in the right
To make me not fight
You used to call me Jessy
I always hated it
But now
I would give anything,
Everything
To hear you call me Jessy
Just one more time
Just once more, I want to see
That smile you used to give me
Sitting there silently
Pondering life reflectively
When I sat next to you
You told me stories that seems untrue
There once was a woman
full of life and love.
She still exists
somewhere high above.
During her trek
through life itself,
she fell ill;
for a cure, doctors did delve.
Oh, grandmother
With your white-white hair
and your pale skin you protected from the sun
Did you have any regrets?
Were you thankful
for the gift you were given?
The gift to pass as white?
christ chose to lift her at this time,
"To die is better than to live,"
is written in the Book of Life.
Grandmother lies there withering
Writhing in pain
The venomous blood
Slithering through her veins
Doctors and nurses float in and out
She never wavers
Until she thinks I am gone
i have visited again
the place where i grew up
i can taste the meals she makes
and feel the love she gives us all
the scent of freshly blossomed blooms
fills the air around me.
My grandmother showered her fingerprints in the blueprints of my 18-year old life.
On my first week of preschool,
My cries of hysteria were of no match for her loyal ears,
I see my daddy in heaven, right next to gram,
They see me,
They know.
I don't really see them.
Everytime I walk into the room, I try to ignore the fact that she's in pain.
It slowly crawls behind a person
Like a shadow in the early stages of life
The few who leave early
do not get consumed by something so divine
The sun glows.
The winds blow.
But it means nothing
Without your love.
The times we spent
Came and went.
Like shooting stars
From up above.
I wish I had
Graciously black
Open winged butterfly
Gliding through the sky
Where do you go when you’re all alone?
Is there a place you call home?
You land here
You land there
Always on the go
Grandma who gives hugs like a scratchy wool sweater
and waves goodbye from the driveway
who is warm cookies and salty chips
who is wire-rimmed glasses and a cold can of Pepsi
She was beautiful once. She was feisty once. She could ride a Harley, choke a stogie and found herself as a fine woman of the 50’s.
RIP 1921-2013 Though my body, broken and batteredHas long since faded away,My mind and soul and heartAre vivid and shall not decay. Though my bones may moan in protestOr my limbs cry out in pain,My spirit is as young as ever,For never shall I wane
When my Great Grandmother was near death in the hospital
I was curious to see what an old person's butt looks like,
so I kept standing on my tippie toes to catch a see
The sun above me sings a lullaby,
The rain mimics the tune,
Roses dance,
Glitter strikes from each and every beat,
A moment, stuck in the breath of a lost memory.
It's cold and will not breath the same again.
A heart is frozen, wrapped in born sadness of lost words.
Wisdom is rugged.
Time wound back to youth and time spent.
The salt of cuts and cracks of skin,
Dark with age and learned.
For the rainy days,
Which made her flowers bloom.
For the hugs she gave me,
When I needed them most.
For the years spent suffering,
Before she passed away.
For being the strongest woman,
One Day I will be gone
And one day my grandchildren will be wandering around
Being nosey like children usually are
And they will stumble across their Meemaw’s journal
And being curious like children usually are
The ring glistened in the light above/ telling all just how to love/ once just meant for show and fashion/now presents this love and passion// The woman owning this precious ring/ was quite big into helping/ a caring heart for all she sees/ an op
Why rid the earth of filth when the filth was you
you took over in Germany when they had no idea what to do
You led them to dismay, you took our rights away
you told them that because we were different we were wrong
I sat there
Unworried, stress free
Or in other words calm and collected about the whole situation
Determined, expecting
Looking past the affection
Only concerned about our connection.
She lied hopelessly on the floor like a dead cat motionless with only the sound of heavy weezing. In utter shock it felt as if the world had just stopped but kept moving around me, nothing was affected down the street the same house wife would be
There is no sound.
She’s sitting, lying in her bed,
And she just stares at the ceiling.
I speak to her, I tell her I love her
And she squeezes my hand.
There is no sound.
There is no sound.
She’s sitting, lying in her bed,
And she just stares at the ceiling.
I speak to her, I tell her I love her
And she squeezes my hand.
There is no sound.
My grandmother told me of a place
Where she played as a kid
She never said how she found it
But it’s gone now
I watched my motherfrom under water. Therewas a perfume risingoff the morning sea.She sang slow andbreathed it all in.
She watched my heartslowly softening.
I could feel myself start to change
Becoming something that was deranged.
My heart raced, even skipped a beat
As I surrendered, admitting defeat
Here comes the pain
And as it started, so did the rain
Can't decide between what's wrong
or what's right
Confused about what to do about everyone around me
I have found true love from someone who cares
Feeling trapped because of grief
Gazing into her eyes I wonder about the journeys she has embarked upon throughout the past 87 years of her life.
Quiet, yet outspoken in the way she carries herself, she has proven to be a committed wife.
I was born with ash-filled lungs,
and Mama kept some cigs in her panties.
She made me a plain dress once—
said it matched my face.
I never could understand,
why every whisper in town waft her name.
Maybe life goes on, even with you gone,
Maybe this is how it's supposed to be.
Like sunshine you'll follow me wherever I go
Even through the fog and the cloudy days.
There is always a gloomy day
where you wanna lay in the rain
When you lose someone
a part of you brakes away
You were far more than just my grandmother
The stories you told kept me up all night
You spoke to me like you were my mother
I will remember you when I recite
We don't talk anymore
we don't even see each other
It's been forever
There is still pain in my heart that you are gone
I can't even call you
It's been forever since I even heard your voice
Awoken.
It was 3:11a.m.
The girl stared off into the darkness.
The dark hallway disappeared beyond the border.
Ring. Ring. Ring
The thought of worry twisted back into her mind.
Everything's changed
But then again, it's still the same
With the loss of a loved one
There are wishes for it to be undone
To be redone over again
With one last chance to say goodbye
I'm dangling on the rail of a hospital bed
Clinging to you and the life you have left and
Somewhere in between hushed breaths and the unnerving hum of the air mattress
Always there for you,
Because you need them to.
Cures all your tears,
Drains all your fears.
Even when time's are tough,
Frequently you do more than enough.
Goodness you are great,
I've got two guardian angels watching over me.
One is named grandma and the other daddy.
Both were loved so dearly and nothing brought them down.
They were both so strong and lived their lives proud.
Above the Cork & Bottle
In a warm, rustic flat
Sits a frail woman
With a clicking jaw and creaking bones,
The latter from age,
The former from cruel corrections.
A cozy flat where
