Heaven For Me

Heaven for me will be
Seeing my mother happy
And my father in his right mind
Healthy, confident
And my grandma will want the
Memories of her life
Here, she doesn't want
To give them back
Still, she can't remember
The sad ways she's been
The poetry now, the family now,
The joy now is too loud
Having to leave her home
To exist within small corners
Of white men's worlds
She cannot remember that

But the smile of her first born,
Yes
That's here
And me?
I have my father to my right
And my mother to my left
I turn to greet them both
& they send something back
To me that peace could only hope for
And me either...
I cannot remember the
Sad ways that I have been

The way language works
Seem like child's play
And there is no conversing
How we once knew
We only quietly convey
The inner workings of our hearts
And we cannot remember
The sad ways we've been
Only grandma's first born's smile is somewhere on our faces