There’s a wind running through the trees here. It’s not that we’ve forgotten you, we remember.

I remember your tall spirit, the sturdy line of your back, each graying hair.

Someone asked me once, if I could go back to any moment in time, where would I go?

I would go back to the moment I first saw you dancing in the barn. Your tall, strong legs were carrying you across the floor effortlessly.

I miss the way you would get up early to go tend to your horses, every day you would sing and dance your way from the house, to barn, to field and back again.

When I was young, you told me, never lose the reason your heart beats.

I never understood it, until now. I live to be a writer, to share my stories and to preserve your legacy. You lived to be my grandparents, us kids made your whole world go ’round. You told us so, everyday. Once, I remember watching you two dancing, to an old song and I thought, ‘this is what happiness must feel like.’

I do miss you everyday. Four years apart, we lost each one of you. When you were both gone, something inside of me must have snapped. I remember grand moments like, making breakfast on a Saturday morning. Or watching old TV on a Sunday afternoon.

Mawmaw, you taught me how to do crossword puzzles in ink. I’ve still not yet mastered it, but if there’s one thing you passed down to me, it was fight. I won’t ever give up.

Poppy, you were the one who gave me the power of poetry. Wrote me little stanzas to keep with me, I still have them. You let me believe in the power of my own words, when I didn’t have a voice.

It’s grown so quiet now, I miss you everyday. But I know that even though you’re gone, I’ve still got you inside my veins.

🐾