PETE

After Sunday lunch,

Nan goes out to the garden

with a pair of scissors

and cuts a single flower

a rose

and she slowly walks

across the paddock to Grandpa’s grave,

the flower in one hand

her walking cane in the other.

She sits on the cool granite

and places the flower in the vase

next to his headstone

then she sings Grandpa a song.

Nan’s voice

floats on the wind,

as fragile as glass

and

as sad as loneliness

and Mum stops washing the dishes

and listens

from the kitchen window.