When Gramma Visits

 

When Gramma Visits

Her love so intense
frightens the kids.
They shrink from her kisses.
“I wuv you, too,” says Lily,
testing the words.

Gramma from the flatlands of Florida
walks our mountain road and is scared
the kids will fall off.
They say “Off what?”
“The road.”
“Why would we fall?”

She watches Crime and Punishment on PBS.
She read it years ago—in Russian.
I want to watch Corvette Summer on ABC.
She agrees to please but it’s so bad,
after ten minutes I’m embarrassed.
We switch to PBS and watch in awe
as Gramma talks back to the characters
in Russian, words she doesn’t want
the kids to understand.

At the airport
she kisses us all
with big noisy smacks that mean
we’ll never see her again.

…..

First published in Verse-Virtual. Thank you James Lewis, editor.