Selling the family cow

 

My grandmother,

A tiny soul,

Raised five giant sons

As if off a bean stalk

But treating me

Like her golden goose

Believing I would never

Sell the family cow,

While she sold me

The fairy story

That if I worked hard enough

Believed deep enough

And trusted in fate

I would see all

my dreams fulfilled,

She sold me the family cow

Before I ever got a chance to

Leaving me only

With a pocket full of beans

And two bits of wisdom:

“Give love fully,” she said
“without expecting love back,”

And
“you never need to undo

Something you didn’t do

In the first place,”

Lessons on life,

I’ve struggled to learn,

And I’m still learning,

Planting my beans

In the soil I’ve rent,

Trusting fate to make

Them bloom,

Even if I never

Get to smell the flowers