Oh, How My Grandpa Loved My Grandma

He did not attend the reception,

He did not attend the funeral;

The man was cast by the iron forge of the Depression,

But I wonder - does the great depression of the thirties

Even rival how he feels now.

They had slept apart for years,

Decades even,

But now, in this moment,

He wished he could be beside her once more.

No.

They would be apart forever now.

With all of the family around,

He had never felt this alone,

Never wanted so much to be - done.

He couldn’t go into the living room,

And the country song he had heard so many times:

“This Old House”

Which caught in refrains the fresh emptiness

Of a once full house,

Made sense, finally.

It would still be months before he was ushered down

The hallway of a hospital

Crying unrecognizably for help;

For now, the family still gathered,

While he sat alone in the back room,

Saying,

“I’ll just go,

I don’t want to be here,

I’ll just go.”