Old WomanCrocheting

A tribute to my grandmother

Old woman,
Sucking cigarette smoke
Into leathered lungs.
Do you know
When you suck
Your lips disappear?

Old woman,
I see your fingers
Yellow brown.
Do you know
Two fingernails are brown?

Old woman,
I would rest on your knee
And watch your brown fingers
Work their magic.
But the smoke
Hurts my eyes,
Old woman,
And I must watch
Through its mist
Your nimble nicotined sorcery.

Old woman,
You are making airy anemones,
Fragile flora.
See them grow
Beside your chair.
Mystic chains, old woman,
Casting form and pattern,
Snaring surrogate air.

Old woman,
Burnt-fingered sorceress,
Who will love you
When I go?

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