<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">How I Learned to hold grief at such a young age</span><br><br><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">And she didn’t know how to hold her grief </span><div><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre">  </span>so she let it break</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Like waves against the inside of her skin </span></div><div><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre">     </span>until it was all worn</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Down trying to hold her together and she only wanted</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">My baby older sister to remember grandpa </span></div><div><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre">    </span>as a happy man,</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">A man who stuck out his bum playing </span></div><div><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre">       </span>basketball, who told</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Jokes so bad my Navajo grandma would </span></div><div><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>scold him, and kiss him</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">and make him coffee in that blue kettle </span></div><div><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre">   </span>their old house</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">still has somewhere, maybe under the </span></div><div><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre">      </span>cabinets, or behind</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">that old flour tin that had maggots one year </span></div><div><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre">  </span>when my mom</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">was helping her mom, my scary Navajo </span></div><div><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre">  </span>grandma, clean it out</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">and they managed by some Navajo miracle </span></div><div><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre">     </span>to keep the spam</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">& eggs from burning on the stove the entire </span></div><div><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre">  </span>time & I remember too</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">how my grandmother had a picture of her </span></div><div><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>husband up</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">until the day she died and even now it’s still </span></div><div><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre">       </span>there in that house</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">& how my mother has learned to say hello </span></div><div><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre">  </span>to the photographs</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">and clear the gardens every few weeks, and </span></div><div><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre">     </span>lick her wounds</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">and somehow make sure we’re never too </span></div><div><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre">   </span>sad about it,</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>don’t ever be sad</i>, because <i>they were good people</i>,</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">great people, in fact, and they never would </span></div><div><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre">    </span>have said that</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">sort of thing out loud while they lived, and </span></div><div><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre">       </span>that is important</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">to remember because that is exactly the </span></div><div><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>kind of good</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">that they were, that we were from since the </span></div><div><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre">  </span>very</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">beginning</span><br><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre">     </span>- Kinsale Drake</span></div></div></body></html>