My Grandmother's Sweater

The crispness of the morning
awaken the sleeping robins.
The sun peeks out from the horizon
as I put on my grandmother’s sweater.

I turn and face the body
wasted of life
tired eyes looking back
full of pain.

The other day my sister asked me,
“Which way does the grass grow?”
Down into the ground, I think
as I snuggle deeper into my grandmother’s sweater.

“What’s life all about?” she asked me next.
Love. Death. Pain. I think,
as they lay her into the ground.

I feel nothing
as the sun shines down
upon the crosses in a row
only comfort in my grandmother’s sweater.

The POEM was written by Marla Stevens. And it tells and shows the granddaughter’s love for her grandmother.  It is a narrative poem and a free verse. Narrative, because it simply tells a story; and the story is about the experience the author’s has had during her grandmother’s burial, as she reminisce it in this poem.

The crispness of the morning
awaken the sleeping robins.
The sun peeks out from the horizon
as I put on my grandmother’s sweater 

The first stanza sets the mood of the poem. It starts with an ordinary situation in the author’s life, and a common situation in everyone’s life. When we wake up in the morning the shining rays of the sun greet us; and give us its radical energy to fill us up. And then on last line of the first stanza cues the start of what the poem is about.  

I turn and face the body
wasted of life
tired eyes looking back
full of pain.

In the second stanza, Marla describes her grandmother, the dead body of her grandmother. She implicitly tells that her grandmother endured great pain as she described it in the poem, but didn’t tell what it is.

The other day my sister asked me,
“Which way does the grass grow?”
Down into the ground, I think
as I snuggle deeper into my grandmother’s sweater.

The third stanza starts with the conversation Marla had with her sister.  It is about the spontaneous moment Marla had with her sister, and a spontaneous question asked by her sister. The mood in this stanza is like a question that came out of curiosity about something.

“What’s life all about?” she asked me next.
Love. Death. Pain. I think,
as they lay her into the ground.

The fourth stanza is the continuation of the spontaneous conversation of the two sisters. But in this particular stanza it describes what life is all about, love, death, and pain. The inescapable stages of life that every human will must pass through, regardless of age, sex, status, and race. And this stanza tells the reader that the author had already experienced the stages. The love she had for her grandmother, and the pain she’s experiencing after her grandmother died; and the painful fact that her grandmother can never be with them again.

I feel nothing
as the sun shines down
upon the crosses in a row
only comfort in my grandmother’s sweater.

 The last stanza of the poem tells the end of her grandmother’s burial. And implicitly describes the feeling of the author, it is like she is looking blankly as the sun goes down; and only find comforts with her grandmother’s sweater.