Memories of Grandpa Don

Grandpa brought home
6 black and white kitties
to catch mice
He grabbed a cardboard box
filled it with sand from the yard

Sit up straight in the chair he said
we were at a restaurant
I lost balance as the chair tilted backward
spilled my pop
his eyes flashed with fire
I would have belted your mom for that

Chocolate chip cookies and bananas for breakfast
musty basement
macrame cords holding mirrored tables
long countertop
holding a menagerie of
decorative perfume bottle
swans, children, ancient

Years later- Hugo, OK- circus town
cement blocks to enter their small rental house
smoke hung in the air
he put his cigarette out
when he saw us at the door
met his new wife, not pretty, but nice
nothing like grandma

shag carpeting
smashed down
orange worn over brown
his wife went out for a smoke

they served us
pop can biscuits with garlic and butter
I asked for more
grandpa took me to the store

small dingy fluorescent lights
brighter than anything else in town
black and white tiles leading down to the refrigerator case at the end of the aisle

the next day we met him at the circus museum
fresh made lemonade