[Stylist] a poem from Poem a Day poets.org

[Ann Chiappetta]

Grandfather's Breath

Ray McNiece

 

You work. You work, Buddy. You work.

Word of immigrant get-ahead grind I hear

huffing through me, my grandfather's breath,

when he'd come in from Saturday's keep-busy chores,

fending up a calloused hand to stop

me from helping him, haggard cheeks puffing

out like grey t-shirts hung between tenements,

doubled-over under thirty-five years a machine

repairman at the ball-bearing factory, ball-bearings

making everything run smoother-

especially torpedoes. He busted butt

for the war effort, for profiteers, for overtime pay

down-payment on a little box of his own,

himself a refugee from the European economy,

washed ashore after The War to End All Wars.

Cheap labor for the winners.

 

I hear his youth plodding through the hayfields

above Srednevas, and the train that wheezed

and lumbered to the Trieste, the boat where he heave-hoed

consumptive sister, one-two-overboard.

I hear him scuffling along factory smoke choked streets

of Cleveland, coughing out chunks of broken

English just to make it to Saturday morning balinca-

how he grunted off a week's worth of grit

hurling wooden balls down the pressed dirt court,

sweaty wisp of gray hair wagging from his forehead,

This is how the world turns. You work hard. You practice.

And I hear his claim as we climbed the steps

of Municipal Stadium, higher, into the cheap seats,

slapping the flat of his hand against a girder,

I built this, Buddy. I built this.

 

But mostly I hear how he'd catch

what was left of his breath after those Saturday chores,

pouring out that one, long, tall cold beer

that Grandma allowed, holding it aloft,

bubbles golden as hayfields above Srednavas,

before savoring it down and taking up

the last task of his day off-cleaning the cage,

letting Snowball, canary like the ones once used

to test coal mines for poison air, flap clumsily free

around the living room, crapping

on the plastic covered davenport and easy-chair

they only sat in twice a year.

 

And I'm still breathing, Grandfather, that day

you took me down the basement to the cool floor

to find out what was wrong. Come on, Snowball,

fly. Fly! The bird splayed out on the same linoleum

where they found you, next to your iron lung,

where Grandma mopped for weeks after,

pointing with arthritic fingers, See. There.

There's where he fell and bumped his head.

See the specks of blood?She can't work out.

One fine morning when my work is done

I'm gonna fly away home, fly away home.

Come on, Snowball, fly. Fly!

 

Copyright C 2004 by Ray McNiece. From Bone Orchard Conga (WordSmith Press,
4th Edition, 2004). Used with the permission of the poet.

 

 

Ann M. Chiappetta, M.S.

Making Meaningful ConnectionsThrough Media 

914.393.6605 USA

Anniecms64 at gmail.com <mailto:Anniecms64 at gmail.com> 

All things Annie: www.annchiappetta.com <http://www.annchiappetta.com>  

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/stylist_nfbnet.org/attachments/20230113/a2a557a7/attachment.html>