My Dear Irish Grandfather Poem by Gayle M. Sunshine O Maize Water Nora Shoshone Doherty Winchester, story song Glen A, Sweeney +

My grandfather recalled
Some days of old when he
Collected pieces of coal -
Black gold -
From the train tracks in his town, our U.S.A.
In his hands he'd hold
Pieces he brought home - coal to burn in a pot belly stove -
The only way sometimes
For him and his 'Pa'to keep warm back then in the days of old.
That's a story he told me.
I remember as a little girl
Walking along the road to the little one room candy store - the road that was
Part of my world -
By the greenhouses where flowers grew for market.
My friends and I looked for coke bottles amoung the tall grasses
Worth not one cent but two!

Each small glass bottle we found meant two pieces of penny candy -
Like a Christmas stocking feast - making our hearts soar..
My grandfather found coal
But lots of times we got candy from the penny candy store! A childhood friend of Paul's and mine and my Dad's told me when I was a very little girl - 'You have tears like diamonds'....All USA always has good tears and the beauty of blue and diamonds, too. All poems on this site are by me, by Gayle Sweeney July 8,2024