My Grandma

She said...
I cannot remember a word she said
No wisdom from her mouth was uttered
She showed it in daily acts of grace
And like stardust kindness scattered.

I hear her...
I hear her music in my heart
Inviolate infallible parts
And still wince at
My own lack of grace
I used to say it right to her face her broad bland grin made me smile
"My Dida you have a froggy smile"
And that always broke her up  into happy froggier grin!
To her unhappiness was the only sin.

My grandma was...
My heart stops to say she
Is no more
Or to even make a list-
Of all that she was just to me alone
She is lodged in my throat a  lump of memories
In my heart I have been kissed.

Sunny days ago when she dwelt on earth on lease
She was caring warmth and ease
Her strength lay in her effort to please

Those hands...
Her Hand made bread she dipped in milk and molasses
And swiftly fed all her grand lads and
Lasses
And carefully on her shelf she kept
A toy bull if her granddaughter wept
Grandma was a wish fairy a magnanimous elf
Her hands made magic treats
To entice our little selves
Many the dishes she cooked and her pretty daughters served
My mother and aunts, today memories' palate is starved
She smuggled us lozenges
Mom wasn't in the know
We blindfolded her like swarms of impish mosquitos..
Grandma the day we lost you
Where did you go?
Why God puts on such blindfolds we will never know.

My grandma was...
Yes, femne extraordinaire
She took up a job
Those days women stayed home and tended  the hob
My grandma wore pants and operated a phone
Those days all calls went to a telephone exchange board
This isn't a rock song but she had the glamor of a star
Her singing was fabled- beyond compare.
They asked  her to sing on the radio
But she stayed at home like good ladies do
finely atttuned o she knew the strings were strong
When fuses were short she on patience was long...

My grandmother...
Your rough wrinkled hands on the nape of my baby neck
Smoothing in powder so that in sun I do not bake
My grandmother still graciously you hum in my heart
Strum your violin since death did us part
Strum your violin and may evermore you smile
Angels may listen and forget care for a  while.

She was graceful tactful
She was wise
My Dida simply was just very nice.

My grandmother...
sings us tenderly to yesterday's shores  once  more
Accross music's bridge and right across
To heaven's door.

    

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(c) Amrita Valan 2014