drunk at the kitchen table with my grandmother

by Justin Hyde

she tells me
they were too poor
to get a divorce

otherwise
she would have
cut grandpa loose
for sure.

grandpa's underground.
drank himself
to death
three years ago.

the little cemetery
can be seen
from the
kitchen window.

i've always had a
gut feeling
he did things
to my mom
and aunts.

but i don't dare
ask grandma
about it.

i'm afraid
she'd be
honest.

instead
i pour us
two more
high balls

&

ask her
to tell me again
how my great
grandmother
made actual
potato sack dresses
for her
and her sister
when their farm
went belly up
during the
depression.