Granny

The hospital was so far away I never came to visit
and so it was decided without me: these were the last moments
and it would be a lot more convenient to take her directly in the casket
rather than a wheelchair, or the sickbed
besides the casket was transparent so she’d be able to see
it had white silk lining and she’d be so much more comfortable

It was a beautiful summer day, my parents opened the sunroof
and we watched the trees file down and the sun glimmering through the clouds.
Granny was quite chirpy and talked a great deal, so much
I worried she might run out of air inside her glass casket and die before her time.
I wanted to say something; protest, but then
I imagined what would happen if she didn’t die before we got there,
and how abandoned she might feel as we threw soil over her.
So I thought maybe it would be better if she did run out of oxigen
just from chatting with us in the car

It was a long way to the cemetery, so it was decided
that we’d make a short stop to see the Wilsons.
Granny got out of the car too, fit as a whistle, and we all had tea and biscuits
she didn’t look ill at all.
I took my dad aside and told him maybe it wasn’t time yet. He said
‘No, it was just the drive
after all a drive in the car on a day like this
can lift anyone’s spirits’
‘I’d have taken her out every day if I’d known’, I wanted to say.
I wanted to believe it, too