Grandma
When I asked
Grandma said, “Tell stories”
And I don’t know
What kind of stories
And should they be written?
Or Told?
Novels or poems?
My grandmother’s
Or my own?
When I was young she used to tell stories
From books
And from memory
I don’t remember them
I was too young
And didn’t know myself then
I learned history from a book
But
When I asked her
The most important question
When I asked her
After she was gone
About my purpose
She came all the way back
To respond
She said,
“Tell stories”