
Grandma wore two rings, one loose.
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Thank you for reading
Richard
I write because I must
Disasters happen, my grandfather claimed. This was in the years long before his own. He’d wag his finger and frown like a grumpy goat, and I’d laugh and giggle regardless. Take it seriously, he’d mutter. You’ll thank me one day, he’d say. Of course, I didn’t, couldn’t, not when everything seemed so far away.
Now, as disaster looms and I struggle to raise my head, my own grandchildren filtering around me like ground coffee a percolator, I wish I had. It’s not so I’d know, but so I’d know what to say.
I’m so preoccupied, I forget to say goodbye.
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Photo by Bruce Tang on Unsplash
She was that age, that ageless something
Between rose petal cheeks and silver waves of fascination
Where the foundations moved but the plans never changed
Where her eyes only ever shone brighter, more acutely than before
Piercing like twin stars set in her own personal heaven
A girl with a woman’s knowing, woman with a girl’s innocence
The sort of carefree soul who bought coral rings just to remember other people’s dreams
It was easier for her living through the dreams of others, I think
As she had no time to waste on her own
I’ve forgotten what they called her because her name never really mattered
Not to those who shared her timeline, her space, her place
A name, as with the asking her age, was pointless
For whoever took the time to speak to the wind
When the only thing that mattered was feeling it rustling their hair
No, her name was only sought by those determined to tame her
To mould and conform her; they might as well have bottled an ocean
Elemental, unbridled, let loose on us all
An ageless angel without a prayer of surviving, she couldn’t have cared any less
And when I was with her, neither could I
Yet, now, I wished I’d known it
Guessed or made up something to define her soul
To capture the uncapturable even if but for a day
I suppose I will until my own spark fades
And all those dreams with it of her body pressed to mine
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