The Last Words Of My English Grandmother


There were some dirty plates
And a glass of milk
Beside her on a small table
Near the rank, disheveled bed-

Wrinkled and nearly blind
She lay and snored
Rousing with anger in her tones
To cry for food,

Gimme something to eat-
They’re starving me-
I’m all right I won’t go
To the hospital. No, no, no

Give me something to eat
Let me take you
To the hospital, I said
And after you are well

You can do as you please.
She smiled, Yes
You do what you please first
Then I can do what I please-

Oh, oh, oh! she cried
As the ambulance men lifted
Her to the stretcher-
Is this what you call

Making me comfortable?
By now her mind was clear-
Oh you think you’re smart
You young people,

She said, but I’ll tell you
You don’t know anything.
Then we started.
On the way

We passed a long row
Of elms. She looked at them
Awhile out of
The ambulance window and said,

What are all those
Fuzzy-looking things out there?
Trees? Well, I’m tired
Of them and rolled her head away.


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The Last Words Of My English Grandmother