a few leaps back.

my nai nai
everyday after school gilly would get dropped off at her nai nai’s house whether she liked it or not. sometimes she would skip up the slope into nai nai’s warm welcoming arms but sometimes she would have to be yanked out the car, up the hill and onto the veranda. regardless, nai nai would be waiting to greet gilly with a kiss, a big bear hug and a hot lunch. after guzzling down the hot lunch, grandma and grandchild would have their forty winks and not a minute more. nai nai would always wake first because gilly would never get up without force. nai nai would always have to pull gilly’s toes and entice her with a cup of milo and a piece of toast to wake her grandchild from her slumber . “Wake up! the lizards are going to eat your tea!“

nai nai and gilly would spend the afternoon sitting in the kitchen having tea and talking about the things they did, what nai nai read in the newspaper and every once in a while gossip about the people they know. occasionally gilly would take a sheet of paper from nai nai’s scrap paper pile and attempt to draw. then gilly would present her art to nai nai who would always proudly display it on the fridge or microwave oven. when conversation between them stopped gilly would lay her heavy head on her grandma’s lap and let nai nai stroke her curls. when the evening arrived bringing her mummy and daddy with it, gilly would go back home and get ready for the next day of school and nai nai.

gilly likes tea time. gilly likes afternoon naps and hot lunches. but most of all gilly loves her nai nai.

i carry your heart with me

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)

i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

ee cummings