A Letter to Grandma

By Valene Rodrigues

With nights that pass and days that hurry,
A year went by with your name on a wooden plate,
which, years back, would’ve given my little self a shock too hard to carry. 

Everything happens for a reason, they said, and I believed,
But your loss was so hard to fathom that it felt like the world should’ve ended.
With every step I took and every win I had,
The lack of my personal cheerleader made it hard for me to care. 

Things that were once trivial feel like home now,
Serials that were once cringe remind me of you now.
Every evening sitting with you in front of the TV, 
Complaining about the shows you used to watch feels like a need I want to relive now.

‘Oh, you look like your grandma, ’ 
might still be the biggest compliment I get,
which takes me back to being the little girl you knew once.
Everyone said we were two peas in a pod, 
Looking back now, I can clearly see how.

‘Always the strong kid, always the mature one.’, 
To the world that has always been an epitome of my perception, 
But tell me dear grandma,
How did you always see me for me? 

Your eyes, your words, and those sassy little tales, 
I hope you know you built a legacy besides your name.
It’s unfortunate really. 
That dead people don’t tell tales,
because trust me when I say,
If it were possible, I would’ve been writing a book under your name.