My Grandmother's Heart

When her son died of a brain tumor
on his fifteenth birthday,
my grandmother's heart—

When her husband died in the physician's office
one afternoon ("My one and only, my true love")
my grandmother's heart—

She sold the house on Sleepy Hollow Road
"Dear darlings, Longhill is a bit steep,
but the smaller house suits me better"

At the edge of her grave, I wept
and wept, my grandmother's heart still
throbbing in me ("sunshine," "pumpkin")

pulling me toward the dark inside
of the earth and all that grief
to discover.

 

Poems by Lisa Sitkin: