Christine

Your life was never easy.
It started with a daddy who gave you a secret to hold
One that would never be told.

Then you married a man.
Just to get out,
To escape that life,
You married a scam.

He tricked you, jackal
He left you alone
With your three little boys
He left you alone.

Three children came from your bond
Roelie, Jan and Hans
All wonderful sons

Until the day that three became two
A bicycle
A truck
A pair of new shoes.

I wonder if you can speak to Jan now?
In the heaven you prayed to every day
Can you finally put your burdens down?

After all this
To add injury to insult
What got you in the end
Was the very thing that kept your mind from revolt
Those little sticks of poison killed you,
Again and again and again

Sometimes I think of you
And I know that you'll live on
In the jam tertjies
And every single Elvis song

You weren't a perfect person
Sometimes you were blind
But you loved me more than anyone
I've never met someone so kind

I hope that heaven is all that you dreamt
There's no doubt in my mind,
If it exists,
Its where you were sent.

My grandmother who passed away in the December of 2011