Another 'Grandma' poem (JI)

sealing-wax

an early frost

stiffened the membranes

of grandma’s ears

coating them with silence

although no ripples now

could lap an inner shore

grandma heard

heard with a birdlike

cocking of the head

catching the meaning

not the words

later

a hearing-aid

was hooked to batteries

entombed in a case

of brittle black plastic

its volume wheel was spun

by grandma’s guardian thumb

maybe she shook metallic words

into kaleidoscopes of sound

mostly she clicked her teeth

and drank more tea