I Remember

I Remember

By

Lisa A.Williams

I remember-

riding in the car,

wind

letting in summer,

Dad singing

old songs he remembered

as he grew up

in the place we were heading-

Home

where heartache

etched its scars

but love healed over.

I remember-

My grandmother

 in her bright flowered duster

running to greet us

 tears

 when we arrived,

tears

when we left.

I remember-

my cousin Debbie,

the smell of the river

and buying ice cold cokes

from the soda machine

on the anchored tugboat.

I remember-

Washing down

the salt tablets we “sailors”

had to have as the August sun

beat down, darkening our

Celtic skin.

I remember-

the warm nights

of playing tag and

listening to stories

our forefathers recited

in the oil scented

garage, their only escape

 from the sweltering fields.

I remember-

Waddington,

family who embraced me,

stranger that I was.

I saw in their eyes

my beginnings,

I saw in their eyes

love.