So this, readers and friends
Is where it began
I don't know where it ends
But let's look back again
A fourteen year old is writing
In a hospital room
Far her right in bright lighting
Is great-grandma, who'll die soon
She has few memories of her
As she wonders about home
Nonni keeps asking mother
Not to leave the girls alone
Now we're back in the hospital
On some Pennsylvanian hill
Thirty five family members in total
Nonni's more than ill
Christmas day, and we're at a friend's house
When we hear that final call
A week later, I'm at a funeral, sounding like a mouse
For someone I nearly didn't know at all
Looking back, that was the start
Of most of my questions
On society, religion, art
What the rules really ment
I found a taste for the books
That mom didn't like
I expanded my looks
Gained interest in the night
I started growing apart
From those I once knew
With secrets in my heart
My friends were my closest few
I learned more about a family
That I once thought typical
And (mostly) solved my belifs
On the meaning of "it all"
I look back on the before
As though regarding a cat
It's cute innocence I adore
I find it hard to believe I was that
I still have that Christmas blanket
A snow leopard, her last gift
For a woman I saw maybe four or five times, it
Still has a nice warmth to it
So sometimes I dream of a mint hospital wall
And think back to the start of it all
Nonni died at the age of 93. She spent her retirement going down to the seinor center six days a week to play cards and chasing after my telatives, trying to get them to take home more food.