The prompt for this poem was:  You get to meet someone that you know, but this person is dead. Who is the person? What do you do?

*

my great grandpa is dead

by Kylie Kim

i’m not sure what he looks like
what he sounds like
if he has that classy seoul accent
like my mom does
if he looks anything
like my mom

he’s her dad
after all
i don’t know what i would do
if i ever saw him
in real life
maybe i thought
of seeing him
in the afterlife

because i never met him
or i did
when i was younger
3 months old
and he said
he would meet me again
when i was 3 years old

but a heart attack took him away
and my mom cried
when i asked her about him
i don’t think
i’ve ever seen her cry
that much
i’ve only ever seen her cry
one other time

when i was young
i was still in that condo house
in northwood
and my parents fought
and she was crying into her skincare
her eyes were so red
rimmed with anger
and frustration
and fear
and i cried too
hugging her fragile body
while my angry teary eyes
glared hell
out of my dad
who was standing there

i think my mom’s dad
would have knocked some
sense into my dad
scolded him and shut him down
or maybe they would have
bonded over beer and soju
and drunk their blood out
on glass bottles and cigars

but i don’t know my dad’s mom
my great grandpa
so i wouldn’t assume the worst
of him
so i would ask him
about my mom when she was younger
when she was a piano prodigy
and the best student
in her class

if i could be just like my mom
that studious genius she once was
or if i’m just like my dad
just someone
or maybe i wouldn’t say anything
to my great grandpa
at all
because he’s a stranger
i don’t even know him
so why would i wonder
a thing about him

***

Read the other pieces in the series “From the Garlic Field.”