The art of telling stories about 
people you never knew and 
remembering things they might
never have done.

My father's family
keeps its folklore under
the paper place mats
set on the dining room table
in a house that smells
like Keebler M & M cookies
and rose perfume that
you can taste on the spin
of you tongue.
My father's family tucks
tall tales under the spoon
that has always served 
coleslaw or macaroni salad.
It falls off plastic forks 
and in between the practice 
swings of a decades of 
Philadelphia Phillies swings.
That's when you can get
my great aunts to talk
about dead people.
And Aunt Flo will say something
just sad enough to cause a silence
and Aunt Mary will laugh and nod
her head. But, it's My father who
has always told the best
stories about my pop pop. 

I don't know how much 
I really would have liked
my grandfather in practice
but I love him as a character
and I'm hoping someday 
he will drop a bomb
on a whale in a short story
of mine-- find himself again
in a bar in Brazil far
away from where his brother
was collecting purple
hearts in his pockets
at Okinawa. Take snowy owls
from bird cages for my 
father catching turtles
like a stamp collection.

I don't know if my grandfather
would like my short white hair
or my blue lips-- if he
would eat banana bread
or chocolate chip cookies or
if he would change the radio
when we drove in the car together
or if we would watch thunder storms
Really, we'll never know 
if he really blew up a whale
in world war two. He might
have been discharged for
a senseless retreat back
to a home an ocean away
Blew up a sperm whale
with his memory to relocate
the folded flag of his
brother to the attic
next to the Christmas
decorations. 

I do know that my father and my brother
can fit into a pair of his jeans
and that the night he died
he had opened a fresh bottle
of whiskey.   
I know he wore
glasses and that 
he fell asleep
and never woke up.
If only we all went like 
that. Quiet legends for
three grandchildren un-named.

I know that he lived long
and short. I know I would
have loved him in some way.