Grandmother's Pearls

don't fight
over the corruptible

or bicker over her pearls
when she's gone

your grandmother
was once a woman

remember
that

like you
she danced
with life

she walked down the street
the world stopped
and swooned
in the fullness
of her youth

that she raged
and reigned
and prayed
and loved
and lost
more than you have found
but not more
than there is
to be
found

remember that your grandmother
was
a woman

that she danced
shiny and gleaming
with
what if..

warm with the
flushed face
filled with secrets
and sorrows

then, joy.

a
wanting
that years
do not erase
but deepen

remember that your grandmother
is a woman

amplified
that time is but the
passage of light from a distant star
but the soul is the brilliance
of who we are

remember that your grandmother
was fine
somebody's brown betty
somebody's baby daughter
somebody's prodigy
somebody's fantasy
somebody's worst nightmare
somebody's greatest hope
long before you were hers

Now she's
somebody's sparrow
on whom
an eye
is cast


when the feathers
fall
echoing in your eyes
and ears
mounds of new
down


remember that
she is you

a voice stepping back from solo
to accompany

her
sprit
cannot be contained
in hourglasses

Every hope she had
bedsides Him
is in you

strung together
like little
shiny prayers
in succession
smoothed
by living waters
hope,
from
hand of God