A WINTER NIGHT WITH GRANDMA

by Mariane Holbrook 

If I’d had a tape recorder, 
If I’d known it at the time 
What a legacy she’d leave us; 
But then, I was only nine. 

It was on a wintry evening 
I was with her all alone. 
Snow had fallen, we were stranded; 
Grandma had no lights nor phone. 

Listening to the crackling fire 
Piercing silence like a knife, 
Grandma told me of her childhood 
And the hardships of her life. 

How she rode the open wagon, 
Braved the cold, the hunger, pain, 
Having few of life’s possessions 
That in adulthood I’d attain. 

How I wish I’d kept a diary, 
Kept her story in my head. 
I was, oh, so very young then 
And forgot much that she said.