I am sitting with Gram at the hospital

Holding her hand

And listening, just listening.

Her silver hair glows like

A halo against the white pillow.

She is away, in another place,

An earlier time.

So I listen.

She talks of her grandparents

Homestead . 

She is sitting  where she can look

Down through the stair rails

And see the great room.

People are coming for a family

Funeral. 

She says they look so sad and many

Are crying.

I listen and the scene

Suddenly changes.

She is in another place,

Another day now.

She is calling to her Papa

To please come in for supper.

He looks so tired and really should

Come in to eat.

It would be many more hours

Before he came in for he was

In the field digging a large grave

To bury his two horses

That had been killed by lightning.

He would not leave them

Until he was done.

It was his way of grieving.

How I wish I had asked her

To tell me more stories

When she was well.

I would have just sat

And listened and listened.

Susan Bergeron

11/01/2010