Poems | Photos | Journal | E-mail   your great grandpa

there is no fun in funerals when you're little
i wanted to believe her
but i wanted to go very badly

he was so sick
and wrinkled
and he sagged so sad into the chair in the nursing home
where all us kids hated to go, even twice a year
but i do remember something about ice cream
to stand on his flat tombstone is to feel cold floors
through sandals when it was so hot outside
in the florida summer
and great-grandpa's car got sticky with
happy sweat and chocolate on vinyl
(i don't think he ever minded)

but what i really remember is the listerine and soap
they sanitized us children with every time we left
the place where my great grandfather
(who was tough as nails)
sat in the chair and rubbed his feet
into the floor all nervous and bored

copyright, C.M. Priest