Granddaughter.

Once, like my granddaughter
I was young.
And, like her,
Behind my quiet eyes and smooth face
I hid mischief.

But now, I am old.
My memory lies in ruins
Like shattered glass.
But when my granddaughter talks to me,
Tells me her deepest secrets,
She retrieves some of my own from the abyss.

When she gives me the news
That she is to be Juliet,
It brings me back to my theatre days.
Face smothered in pancake makeup
Hair stiff with gel,
Also bringing Shakespeare to life.

She often sits beside me
And recounts adventures.
Of skipping class,
Of laughing until she cried
Of sleeping in until three in the afternoon
And staying up until the moon disappeared.

As she tells me this, I remember
Jumping off bridges into shallow water.
Playing video games until my eyes screamed
And guitar until my fingers bled.
I remember getting the tattoos
That were now ink blotches on my skin.

I am the first person she tells about her boyfriend.
He's supposedly dreamy, gorgeous,
Everything she could ever want.
She says he calls her every night
And she goes to sleep with his "I love you,"
Ringing in her ears.

And I tell her how it felt to wake up at midnight
My lovers body fitting like a puzzle piece against my own.
To hear his heart beating
To feel his lungs breathing
And knowing without a doubt that I, at seventeen,
Was in the throes of real love.

When she came to me, eyes turned into waterfalls,
Heart broken into pieces,
We cried together, her pain reminding me
Of the day my husband went to work,
And never came back alive,
Killed by a man with liquor for blood.

This is my granddaughter.
Once, I was young like her.
But not anymore. Instead,
I rely on her trust in me, her cherished secrets
To bring me back my life
For one last recounting.

And, when I am long gone into the Earth,
I hope that she will be like me.
Her grandchild's confidant, the keeper of secrets.
I hope she will then know
Just how much she meant to me,
My precious granddaughter.