I want to understand you

My grandmother

She's a tiger

She stalks

The thoughts

Up in your head.

She reaches in

And gropes

For her meaning.

She's a living contradiction

She gives so selfish.

She's a helpless child

And an old old woman

Having lived a 1000 lives.

She moves her mountain

Of pain and trauma

So heavy...and stiff,

You can almost smell it.

It's the scent she wears.

She's ever moving

Faster than her demons.

Her mask became her face

It is the truth she cannot face.

How could she?

Stillness is her biggest fear.

Where does she fit so much pain?

Does she become it?

She's the smith

In her hands the ore

Forms a sharp dagger of pain.

She pokes around with it

And stabs with calculated precision

She doesn't care.

Does she care?

Grandmother

I want to understand you.