My Grandma Washed Away
Oakland, CA
2024, Senior, Poetry & Spoken Word
I held hands with my grandma by the shore
The waves crash and swallow themselves
Over and over and over again
We let the tide sweep us off our feet
Early morning high
And late night low
As my glassy eyes reflected the moon’s influence on the water
And we were content.
We went back
Day after day
Watching the hermit crabs scurry to find their homes
And burying themselves to transform
The occasional fish washed up dead
Kids screamed and poked and prodded
It wasn’t frequent
We weren’t bothered.
My grandma set her hands crossed on the table
I worried
I could see reefs of anemones and coral and moss
Inside her eyes
She sounded like the water
When she told me it wasn’t safe
We couldn’t go back.
Sometimes I think my grandma wanted to be taken by the undertow
The ocean was her oasis
I watched as sunlight absorbed into her chest as she basked
And the little girl inside her chased the waves
That was her place
She has known it forever
She lost her second home
We lost our safe place.
The water was too hot
The bacteria was too deadly
The fish were all dead
The water was rising.
I shuddered.
I watched my grandma become consumed with emptiness
The urchins and moss and pools flooded from her eyes
Her hands cracked and dried
No more pruny fingers we once joked about
Her laugh left with the currents
The wind drove her south
Away
From me
We mourned.
In her hands she held
A turtle
Or
Ashell
Of what once was
She told me she found it walking alongside
The waters that now abandon her
I stared up at her
She stared down at me
We cried.
I see on the news
Animals experiencing habitat loss
Leaving them nowhere to go
But they don’t show my grandma
A little girl
With a home no more
I know she feels small
And unseen
Like a grain of sand lost in the mix
Or a plankton floating by
Just to be swallowed by a whale
I know she feels
I know she longs for
I know she yearns.
We feel hopeless.
I hope she evaporates into the sky one day
And returns in a storm
That cools the water and breathes life back into the sea
I hope her emptiness turns to rage and she storms
Demanding that people see
Forcing people to believe
And pressuring people into the truth
That this water was once hers too.
Reflection
Reflection
When crafting this project, I wanted it to be vulnerable and close to me. A lot of the climate change news I see on TV or other outlets feels so far away, like something I could never experience. Then I dug deeper into myself and remembered being a little kid on the beach with my family, but specifically the days my grandma took me. I remembered witnessing her pain and knew this was the story I had to tell. I began by talking to her about it and taking notes on her experiences. She had such a rich story to tell, once that I could not comprehend when I was younger. I researched a lot on Florida beaches and the changes happening to them now, as Miami becomes more at risk for flooding and people lose their homes. I have learned that politicians are still in denial about the impacts of climate change even as it is happening right before their eyes. My message to them is ingrained in this poem: your silence and ignorance has repercussions, and my grandma is only one example. I knew this story needed to be uplifted and I am very proud of how it turned out. I have always been interested in socially conscious poetry as it can be a way to convey feelings and actually touch the hearts of other people, this process made me dig into my own feelings surrounding climate change and oceans and I hope it does for others as well. I will commit to more advocacy on ocean-safe products and stress the importance of the ocean being a gift to us, not the other way around.