Those Last Words on Thanksgiving Night

2022 5th & 6th Grade Poetry Honorable Mention

I now regret what I didn't say to salvage what was left
Now I’m not even sure what there was left to salvage
Left in the dying ruin of what is left of him
Now I am left in the directionless, smoldering wreckage of what I must not talk about

Now I am left with what is unintelligible
Sitting here not even able to reach it
To unscramble what is left for him to say in those quiet minutes
To unscramble the last words exchanged between us
Between grandpa and granddaughter
The last words that linger in my memory
Those last words on Thanksgiving Night

Now I sit and stare at the person, half of who he was
Not even
Not even half
I sit there and hold his shaking hand
His shaking, thin hand
I again look for reassurance that life is escaping his mouth
And being breathed right back in
Again it comes to me in my mind
Those last words on Thanksgiving Night

Those words that I wish I could utter and say again
To him so he would understand me
Those last words on Thanksgiving Night

Now he is dead
And we have buried the ashes
And I am kneeling here on the ashen dirt
Thinking of those last words on Thanksgiving Night