Linoleum and Love

Linoleum and Love

Linoleum and Love

They were older then, like their kitchen floor,
linoleum and love worn together more
by each treading heart. They were never sure:
had they found happiness, or simply a way to endure?

My grandfather’s faithfulness was tough and taciturn.
Builder and fisherman, he did not learn
patience, except for fish. He’s hook his fingers in the air,
alive with cigarettes, and catch its burning as ashes in his hair.

His eyes were full of stories we never dared
disbelieve. Looking back, I think he cared,
at least as best he could,
his hands hard with working over water and wood.

Every time we visited, my grandmother gave
us scraps. “For the dogs,” she’d say.
Staying in love; knowing how to save,
make a little go a long way.

Such a brave economy of emotion.
it was the best lesson my grandmother taught,
something we might lean on,
knowing how she’d fought

her way into believing. Her rough
knuckled rosary, her tea-towel with its thin-skinned pride,
had to be, for her, hope enough
until at last: a knocking at the door, a veil drawn aside.