For Grandmother

SELECTIONS

16th.august.2017

She would stand and look out to the sea

and then to us

she would smile, my grandmother, before she spoke

spoke her selected words both kind and insightful

‘the sea is calm boys, you can swim’

this particular memory disperses in my mind

blank paper

white canvas

what more to be said? remembered?

grandmother holds our hand

as we walk towards The Big Ben

rain starting to fall

fumbling for our umbrella

shelter near

Ben chiming the hour

Thames flowing

like us with time, with movement

fade out,

Is this a remake of the film that was childhood?

played out by a kindly actress, my grandmother

or is this an ideal of a subject that says innocence?

new scene, is there more truth to be said?

I look at my refrigerator, a postcard with Elvis on it

stays in place with an old magnet, the card is old too

I turn it over, the beautiful cursive, her words linked to my heart

the sweetness of loss, the taste of remembering

selections of many experiences

this ongoing eulogy of lost things.