For my grandmother Catherine Kennedy
CR 2010
The necklace chain held a bit abreast
A bit above my open palm
Lowered serpentine and cool
Blackened and silver
Tarnished and bent links
The cool serpent held the pendant pendulum
A cross rocking back and forth
.
Yet I could tell there was no future hanging in chains
No future sounds
Past screeching noise and muffled-muted-covered-mouth screams and rains of glass
Muffled screams only escape through fissures in a palm to fall on deaf ears that cannot hear for the explosions and bricks falling and sums crashing
through and blown-out nearby windows
Prayers falling on still deaf ears for the sound of bombs and glass breaking and red and black flashing and the sun blotted out in coronas of black circles
and fire blue and blinding yellow
Sometimes there was no sun when she looked up
At night she still prayed to the same ghosts in the dark
The same incomprehensible words and desperate disjointed begging
.
She wore that chain for years and through those years and years ago I never would have taken it from her or held it in my hand
And for most of the time she was around I could not bear the sight of it
It weighed too heavy with cruelty and pain
Even once outside all that broken glass
Even the air surrounding it was cold
.
She had memories so loud
Memories without smell or touch or sight
Memories so loud she could feel blood in her ears
So when she dropped the tumbler glass she more pronounced her wince in pain
Seeing slow-motion explode into shards
She cut her foot and even the cut seemed loud
It left a red footprint just under the refrigerator door
.
She collapsed nearby
She died
To us the room was quiet
Yet up until the moment she floated away her ears still seemed so loud
.
The necklace chain held a bit abreast
A bit above my open palm
Lowered serpentine and cool
Blackened and silver
Tarnished and bent links
The cool serpent held the pendant pendulum
A cross rocking back and forth
One I had never worn until today
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem