It all happened within three
days Three quick but Impatient,
long and dreadful days
The feeling of the unknown surrounded me Patiently
waiting for a response from the numerous doctors
Who had surrounded her in her white hospital bed But there
was nothing… Nothing at all
A few days before she had been admitted, To
be stuck in a room she had never been in
before, All I could think was something was
wrong.
Our usual facetime calls had not been around and neither
were our daily messages we loved doing through text. After
the countless amounts of her not getting back to me, I had
gotten the feeling that something was not right.
I wanted to be there for my very caring, praising
grandmother, When she was going through the worst of it
all. My sister and I were the closest to her The three of us
had a relationship words couldn’t even describe. She wasn’t
just our grandmother, she was our best friend.
I will never forget the look on my dad’s face, Blank and uncertain of what
he had just heard,
After getting off of the phone with one of the kind nurses
that had cared for her, Leaving him at a loss of words.
I have never seen my dad cry, Not once in my fifteen years of constantly being by his side. After getting off that call, however, he was
in the most devastating state. The wet tears, flowing down his cheeks, uncontrollable in any way possible.
The worst of the worst had happened that night Something I wish I could have changed and never experienced at all. My grandmother
was no longer with us anymore and hearing that, Shattered me into a million little pieces, only feeling helpless and torn apart.
Her legacy still continues with me and everyone around us today.
Even though she is not with us physically or where I can give her the biggest hugs,
I am certain she is watching over my sister and me.
Smiling and proud, with her caring and warm welcoming personality, Only wanting to tell us how proud she is of the both of us.
She wasn’t just my grandmother,
Or nanny as we would say,
But she was someone who I had aspired to be like,
Not only when I am older but in my daily life today.
Right before this had all fallen down hill,
Somehow the last words had clearly gotten out.
The most important and meaningful of them all.
I could have never imagined, at that exact moment,
Right when I was beside her, holding her hand in the hospital bed, That ‘I love you’, would have been my last of ever talking to her again.
A cat is how I perceive myself
I socialize with my friends
And exchange news and insights
I hear the rhythmic pounding of
The basketball dribbling back and forth
On the glossed hardwood of the court
I enjoy school and my studies
Yet I also enjoy relaxing
In my room or on the couch
I enjoy savoring the few
Peaceful and solitary moments in my day
With only my thoughts to accompany me
As the clamor of the outside world subsides
And a serene and tranquil feeling surrounds me.
As I settle into restful sleep
Ravaging to the bone;
Brain slowly encased
at the hands of
Dark smoke,
Forcibly forgetting
The birdsong at dawn
And the wolf howl at dusk
Leaving an incomplete shell
Keeping an imprisoned soul
Yearning to communicate,
Failing to feel
At the entrance you enter a new and unexpected place
than what you were just on for hours
From miles upon miles of flat empty grasslands
To a world of tall trees and dirt roads.
Dirt road leads you to a beach
White fluffy sand
Kids and adults playing soccer
While listening to music on speakers
Ice cream and churro vendors attract
The attention of hundreds
At your house in Carilo
The scent of asados radiate into the night sky
Laughter fills the table for hours
Where stories are told
And never forgotten
At your house in Carilo
the scent of asados radiate
into the night sky.
Laughter fills the table
for hours where stories
are told and never
forgotten
I sit beside the naive woman too infatuated to see the storm beneath his eyes as
she pins me to
sweltering humidity
smoke-ridden skies
sleepy farmlands.
To disapproving tongues
and wandering eyes undressing my thick American thighs
without consent.
To aging book paged hands with grime caked beneath fingernails
pinching my cheeks
too hard.
To blood bound strangers that smile at me through rear view mirrors
speaking in distant native tongues
To borrowed tastes
burning the back of my throat on the way down
turning my skin feverish.
I sit beside the naive woman
on the plane back as
tears of grief and relief intermingle.
I go off
when my owner tells me to
He turns on me for a time
I make sure im up
For the time He set
Er Er Er Er I go off
He presses the stop button so I stop
Now he gets ready for another hard day at work
He usually just makes me alarm for the week
On the weekends
I get up at 6
My owner
around 12 he wakes
I am amazed
I could never
Sleep so long
With such tiredness
I’ve never had
Promise… anticipation
driving down the windy roads
somewhere…
deep in New Hampshire.
The town of Wolfeboro,
surrounded by
alluring
Lake Winnipesaukee.
At last,
The dirt spits up from the back
As we make the journey down,
the everlasting dirt road.
To the home,
that I have been counting down the days
to return to.
To the home,
where I can leave all my worries behind…
It’s like a scene
out of a movie
standing there,
with bags in hand
holding a blatant
gaze.
Admiring
how it is possible
that one place can
fill my heart so endlessly
Sitting at the waterfront
seeing splashes
and smiles emerging
from little campers faces.
Joy
and family
memories
that will never be forgotten.
I relax on the wooden dock fishing
with little Jasper, thinking
not about the four-hour drive
not how the school year is starting in a few weeks
or if I will be on dish duty after dinner.
Nothing is on my mind.
Simply the tender air of the sun
mixed with the calm breeze of the lake.
We race to the floating platform and plunge
into the open water holding on to the rush.
Others join us after hearing our cries of
glee and laughter.
We have been through so much together;
through death that came too soon, through many
days and nights in this old rickety house, through storms
that almost collapsed the trees around us.
Some of us have gone, but we have stayed strong
held each other’s hands through the worst of it
and remembered the best of it.
But today while those thoughts are in the back
of our heads, we sing and dance
to the music that we create with our hearts.
In life, there is little room to be hardened with sadness
or to be so enraged that one cannot speak.
So today we are grateful for the days to come
and the ones we will spend here in this blessed place.
Sun is glaring.
Small waves brush
Against the sand.
The children laugh
In the lake that is filled
With people and toys.
Pull into the rocky driveway.
Unbuckle our seatbelts,
And run indoors.
Quickly getting dressed,
And grabbing floaties.
We most likely don’t need.
Painful feeling of
Pebbles digging into my feet.
Which fades,
Once we plunge into the lake.
The plane touches the pavement as it starts slowing down
The seatbelt sign blinks and blinks until
You slow down to the terminal
One step outside the plane and the new air surrounds you
Through the airport down to the car
The car ride takes minutes,
so it feels,
You ride over the intercoastal and towards the sea
The sky reflects on the water
As you arrive you’re greeted with a warm welcome
Into the elevator and go
All the way up to the seventeenth floor,
Open the door and immediately, the stress around you fades
But the as night approaches its time to sleep,
A day filled with excitement
Wake up and start the day
You open the balcony door and look out
Onto the large waves of the sea in the morning,
And on the beach you see the beach goers playing volleyball and soccer on the warm sand
Palm trees blow in the wind dropping coconuts here and there
People walk through the street stores and restaurants across from the beach
They laugh and smile as they walk and talk,
A day filled with life
As it gets darker
the wind cools
The night begins but only,
with more light
People crowd the street with dances and music
All kinds of people join in the fun at night
You smell the sweet scent of from the Italian restaurant
that has been there for decades,
A night filled with joy
As the days go by
The joy only grows
But as the vacation ends
It’s time to leave
You go back to the cars and all the way to the airport
And as you board, your flight back home
You say goodbye for now as you take your last steps for now in