Ruth

 

Grandmother,

  I have never met you, 

But I feel you, hand on me

  Sitting here. 

I see, Ruth...

  What you have done here, 

 In birthing a legacy 

   That followed you. 

  Grandmother...

I feel you...

  Watching over us; Me

As I watch over your daughter now. 

  I understand the reigns passed

That now I take. 

  In my own life, 

I understand your ache. 

 The burden of hardness 

Raising them on your own 

  Because your love left you 

and passed away. 

  I know, in so many ways...

That is not the life you asked for. 

Nothing you hoped you'd have to endure. 

I see you Grandmother...

  Pondering you over these years 

More and more. 

  Your strength fed your own parents, 

During a Depression that none of us will understand. 

  It changed in you careers...

Once you lost your Love, your man. 

It raised children I can see 

  That were impossible too many times. 

And I bet you grew cold, Grandmother. Stern, like just how Mother describes. 

  More and more, 

I feel it. The twinship of our souls. 

  It is in my DNA 

Your history never told. 

More and more, 

  I feel 

You in me. 

  The Strength I never knew I could maintain. 

More and more, as each year sets in 

  We are bound by more than name. 

For in me...you reside. 

  As I finish what you started 

and were finally able to leave behind. 

  I will take care of her. 

And I know you see it in my tear-smudged eyes

  The struggle we both 

        Now share. 

I know you see it Grandmother, 

  as I feel you here and there. 

  As I weep, 

And feel your hand on me. 

  I know...

At least YOU see, 

  Because this is the home you made. 

Every corner here, 

  Was only a bad memory for me

Yet now I resort for us all, 

  To wipe clean 

and make this home anew. 

  I see how now, 

I have become 

  

  The Matriarch here. 

In this home; Your Home- Ours

 Mothering my mother 

  Out of the daughter she never raised. 

Perhaps I get 

  Much of my strength from you. 

Your daughter, Grandmother, 

  No doubt she got that too. 

We are fiercesome creatures 

  The all of us 

Whom take after you.