Grandmother left her paring knife on the counter.
No one could have known that grandfather
Didn’t have long to live
Shortly after their move south.
The wall got built, the china put away.
Of all the memories I could have at this moment
The only one that sticks is of her telling me
To run along.
Truth was
That the house cut into the night like a salient oak
And his heart was filled with fat.
I just wasn’t interested in baseball.
He knew something I didn’t.
Why, why does grandfather take naps I would ask,
Sowing the seeds of your later hysteria.
Each day the old illiterate neighbor wandered by
On his homemade path with perfect apples.