Winner of the Distinguished Award in the Prose Poem/Flash Fiction category during the Creative Writing Festival at UW-Whitewater in 2022
GENRE: Prose Poem
The necklace I clasp around my neck every morning,
To when I take it off and hang it by my door at night,
Is what I have left of him.
To him, I give him the time,
The time that I have that he does not
GRANDPA
1937 – 2017
He’s gone but not the admiration,
His fingerprint I rub when anxious,
The sound of metal jingling with every move I take,
The history of other charms to hang with him,
Now off and put away to respect him
MCKENNA
2005 –
So until my time is up,
The cold metal I clasp around my neck,
Most people would claim to be a chain,
Is not anything but a reminder
That I am here and he is not
When my mother gave me the necklace,
Without me knowing what it was until I looked closer,
My eyes were a flash flood where no dam could stop my grief.
All those memories were houses stacked on cards,
Only to be knocked down to be drowned in
The remembrance of the glass cross in my room the funeral service gave me,
The pieces of paper buried with my grandpa that he will never get to read,
The green rainbow loom bracelet I made him that he never took off his wrist,
All of the trinkets that I wish to see again to hold and kiss
Are hidden below except his fingerprint around my neck