Grandpa

My mother's father
wasn't much
for gushing affection.
When he was dying
we said we loved him,
and he said, "Thank you."
But I felt his worry
when Grandma
got her pacemaker,
and I saw that I
could nearly always
evoke his smile,
and almost every trip
back from town
he'd stop at our house
with a package of "staples":
chocolate covered grahams
or oven baked potato chips--
and these, too, are ways of saying
"I love you."