|
send feedback
LAST WORDS OF MY ENGLISH GRANDMOTHER
and so there she is, shallow breaths,
quietly waiting for the ambulance.
we do not say that this could be the last trip.
she does not say anything.
lying in bed she watches us and waits.
she waits for the ambulance
and watches her family around her,
perhaps measuring us.
and i must share these photographs with her,
these photographs of her great grandson,
at play, 80 years from where she is lying,
and i lie beside her, showing each to her.
she watches each carefully,
as if swallowing the contents,
absorbing. she looks up and
her warbling, pneumonic voice,
quakes out this bequest:
"when you're smiling,
when you're smiling,
the whole world smiles with you."
(with thanks to william carlos williams)
comment
|
|
