Remembrance: An Index From My Grandmother

By Ariel Zhang

WINNER

From the CHANNEL KINDNESS judge’s panel:

With beautiful similes and powerful language, this poem simply took our breath away. Our judges were drawn in by the author’s mastery of the craft, her creativity in writing the stanzas, and vivd imagery. This piece is absolutely stunning and a beautiful ode to her grandmother.

I. CRIMSON:

red, orange, all the other iridescent colors like that. 

I think of the things done and undone, raveled and 

unraveled. crocheted bunnies, knitted turtles. 

the sweater I outgrew. white collars browning, 

hushed behind sepia frames. your watercolor koi 

bleeds into colors only you can see. I want to give

my canvas to you. I don’t know if this is the color 

of dawn or dusk. I don’t know where we begin or end.

 

II. MYOSOTIS SCORPIOIDES:

commonly called forget-me-nots. five petals of sky.

a baby hand. we collected these aqueous antiquities

and kept them like secrets. we spelled out words 

with moons. you taught me such cryptic languages. 

I would spend the rest of my life decoding them. 

now, I spoon quiet words into your mouth

the same way you did when I was little. I want to crawl 

into your lungs and breathe for you. I want to spell it out.

please, forget me not.

Read the full poem on the Channel Kindness site.

Process