Sesheta's 21 Days of Poetry Challenge II

Grandmother

Mom speaks of my grandmother
As if she's larger than life
I'd listen to the stories, fascinated,
And dream to be more like her
When I arrived on the scene
Grandmother turned sixty-four
Old enough to be the grandparent
She wasn't ready to be for my cousins
My mother was the daughter
She'd always wished to have
Even after the divorce
She chose to keep Mom close
I heard her favorite saying was
Nothing is deader than yesterday's mistakes
She always looked to the good side
She never spoke harshly of anyone
I'd heard she was disappointed
None of her boys married a Swede
So each of her three grandkids
Turned out to be half-breeds
She decorated every room
With a little bit of red
I swear it was her favorite color

Every time I turn around
My mother brings her up
Though I love them both
The stories make me weary
For in my mother's mind
My grandmother was perfect
But easier for me by far
To walk in footsteps not so perfect
And for all the times my mother
Talked of the duty to carry on Grandmother's line
I simply rolled my eyes
How could I ever be so good as that?

But then I heard the rumors
So juicy and so sinister
The chink in the armor gleaming
The woman now more I relish
Easier it seems to follow after
And easier to cherish
Interesting she attended college
She dated many boys
But her father told her when to marry
Then her two younger sisters had picked their beaus
And were married within a week
But always my grandmother
Would go out to dance and sing
Through not with Grandpa
Workaholic that he was
So somehow that equates
To people thinking that my father-
Born when his brothers were teens-
Must have had a different father
No one knows, for they're all dead
But to survive those rumors
I love them even more.


Prompt Subject: Cherished Memories
Word(s) to use: color(s)
Word(s) not to use: memory(ies), remember(ing,s), back(ing,s), past, childhood
Other requirements/restrictions: none