Sonnet for My Grandmother
Sonnet for My Grandmother
You always joked of putting bricks on my head
to stop me from growing, four, five feet tall.
It was an expression I detested, and had
no power over me for I soon surpassed
you in height, but not in wisdom. I did not,
could not know what you carried: two daughters in your
two arms—you only blinked and your children were grown.
Now, I too wish for bricks, as you hug me goodbye
at the airport. I dream of the days when
we’d buckle into your Kia and get
Dairy Queen with the windows down. I’d go
down the slide at Alligator park and
you’d push me on the swing. Wind in my hair,
time suspended, it felt like we would never die.