My Grandmother Would Rock Quietly and Hum (Leonard Adame)

in her house
she would rock quietly and hum
until her swelled hands
calmed

in summer she wore thick stockings
sweater
and gray braids

(when el cheque came
we went to Payless
and I laughed greedily
when given a quarter)

mornings,
sunlight barely lit
the kitchen
and where there were shadows
it was not cold
she quietly rolled
flour tortillas --
the papa
cracking in hot lard
would wake me

she had lost her teeth
and when we ate
she had bread
soaked in café



always her eyes were clear
and she could see
as I cannot yet see --
through her eyes
she gave me herself

she would sit
and talk
of her girlhood --
of things strange to me:
Mexico
epidemics
relatives shot
her father’s hopes
of this country --
how they sank
with cement dust to his insides

now
when I go
to the old house in her house
she would rock quietly and hum
until her swelled hands
calmed

in summer she wore thick stockings
sweater
and gray braids

(when el cheque came
we went to Payless
and I laughed greedily
when given a quarter)

mornings,
sunlight barely lit
the kitchen
and where there were shadows
it was not cold
she quietly rolled
flour tortillas --
the papa
cracking in hot lard
would wake me

she had lost her teeth
and when we ate
she had bread
soaked in café



always her eyes were clear
and she could see
as I cannot yet see --
through her eyes
she gave me herself

she would sit
and talk
of her girlhood --
of things strange to me:
Mexico
epidemics
relatives shot
her father’s hopes
of this country --
how they sank
with cement dust to his insides

now
when I go
to the old house
the worn spots by the stove
echo of her shuffling
and
Mexico
still hangs in her
fading
calendar pictures

the worn spots by the stove
echo of her shuffling
and
Mexico
still hangs in her
fading
calendar pictures