Grandfather’s Clock

Grandpa surprised us

with a black and white picture

taken at Grandma’s death bed

where her share of time

suddenly stopped at 8:30am.

Grandma died before her time

we didn’t see the color of her eyes

and grandpa could not recall it, either;

he only repeated

her kind and wise words to us.

Grandpa, thin as a stick

had a hesitant smile

smelled of cheap cigarettes

the pomegranate shade in his eyes

and his graceful frown

made him appealing in a strange way

Once in a while

he would mumble 8:30

under his only few teeth

and  sometimes after

the departure of a doleful silence

he would bend and whine

like a wounded dog.

Grandpa, not as cold as we thought,

never rewound the clock

and did not go to sleep before 8:30

or far from the dead clock

during his share of time.