Nana

-Nana-

Awake at night tossing and turning, a tropical storm starts,

Leaving me weak and in pain, trapped, seeking the eye.

Sleep has been unknown to me, a constant cycle.

What will life be like without her?

Holes in the ground, opened when I heard those words,

The words she said when she thought I was not near.

Listening to her, begging to be taken away.

Waves crashed against my heart, breaking it down, piece by piece. I want her to stay with me like the flowing of the ocean.

But the truth is, I could not ask her to stay for me,

Now I must watch her slowly fade, disappear like the tide.

Since the day I came into this world, she has been with me,

Watching me, guiding me, giving me all the love and support she can, being there when needed.

Sitting down on the soft sand dunes together, passing time,

listening to the world, knowledge washes into us,

like the waves we see.

Breathing becomes a challenge,

In and out, I watch her chest rise and fall,

Her frail body, struggling to keep up living

I still and always will remember her as fiery

and feisty, just like the snapping turtles.

A woman who spoke her mind and was heard,

When no one would listen.

She waits to be taken to her grave,

Still waiting, waiting more than ten years.

She waits to be taken beneath the sand,

She does not want people to know,

But at times, her lip slips like a fall no one expects.

When the time comes, and she is not here,

I will wake to find the sun has fallen and gone away.

There will be no light in my life, only darkness shall remain,

The sea will rage, and knowledge will die.

It is barely worth staying here knowing she is far.

When grief settles, the waves will calm.

I will stand on my own two feet as she would want,

And move forward making this place my own,

Living the life, she wanted for me.

Never stopping to speak my mind and heart

Her name and my love for her will be written in the sands of time.

In remeberance of my Nana, who will always be loved.