For My Grandmother

For My Grandmother


She died young
Her mind crippled
Grey, skin crumpled,
She died young.


Fire in her hair
Embers her eyes
Swaying slides of air…..
That unsympathetic morning
She tucked a blanket around me.


Steadily, no face left
The skull gleam
And no Hamlet persists………
What is left of the toe
I keep as a marker
And note down:
She died young.


-1991