I
When the eyes go bad
it’s time to see the years
through unstitched mouths
where once her miner’s cap
found walls of caves & wombs
with green ground
& darkness breathing
shadows
knowing then
raptures of dust
cast lines of doubt
& failed words
as grandmother’s script
was nothing more than
a poor demolition
of skyscrapers & sea
where once the ground
was a dimmer shadow of mother
& her mother’s mother
now grandmother’s voice
sails beneath a river
of stone
as her breath opens
& closes
When the eyes go bad
nothing waits
‘til the mouth opens
to truth
told untold retold
beneath
culture’s backwater
promises
mortgaged
or otherwise
disposed
of
II
when we were little girls
the niceness found its way
into the stitches of our mouths
never knowing what was
before us
we took for granted
grandmother’s shoulder pads
never seeing
before us
our rights
dismantled
& after us
the invisible growth
on her forehead—
the cancer before its time
the girl knows.
she knows everything.
the stone.
the door.
the mansion.
the prince.
the father
the father
the father
the girl knows.
she knows everything.
as high as the sky
her ceiling grows.
she knows what her grandmother knows.
she knows what her aunt & mother & sister know
wherever they are
between the living & the dying
they move across water
like light shining
in the photograph
she will share with
the shadows lurking
she knows where to find them
the taste of them
has been in her mouth
her whole life
like fog on windows
that is their breath
like fiberglass
they shred the air
of her distinction
mimic her will
postulate her authority
& transform
her majestic presence
her enshrined jewel of soul
her perfumed hollow
III
the doors of the mansion shut.
the ceiling becomes four walls
becomes the floor
becomes a replica
against the skyscraper
scraping the ceiling of the sky
in the dark of shadow
grandmother holds her hand
as the cave deepens
darkness
without fingers
& wrinkles of time
she grows
inside the grandmother
tastes her shadow
bites the darkness
like a mouthpiece eternal
& witnesses
& witnesses
& witnesses
the mystery of grandmother
astride the world
IV
When the eyes go bad
Grandmother walks
In the river
Beneath the silence
Of the rocks
& the doors creaking
Open
