Family & Relatives
Ancient Kings
My grandmother kept a box of old photos in her attic & we used to go up there on rainy days & sit on the floor in the dusty light & go through them & she would tell about witches & broken hearts & how we came from royal blood & it was all there in the pictures, she said & then we’d lose the light & we’d all go downstairs for dinner & in our secret hearts we sat taller knowing once we had ruled the world.
Attack Dog
My aunt had a poodle she dressed in little red sweaters with little dangly ball things & I don’t think it was any wonder that dog was so vicious.
Autumns
I moved a lot when I was young & I still ache a bit at the thought of all those autumns in new & unfamiliar landscapes.
Afterlife
He wouldn’t eat lobster the first time. He said it looked too dangerous & he couldn’t be sure it wasn’t watching from the astral plane or wherever lobsters went when they tired of being food items.
Alice
I’m old enough to wear red boots any time I want, she said. She wanted to be buried in them, but her son had them put her in taupe pumps instead. She wore red all winter long so the ambulance could find her quicker if she fell in a snow bank & also it hides dirt. She had married early & had always been a pragmatist.
Advice
If they’d listen to me this world’d be a better place, my grandpa used to say & my grandma always nodded & said, you’re right. Someday we’re going to kick ourselves for that one & he’d frown & turn off his hearing aid.