What I Never Want My Grandchildren to Forget

Grandpa never took off his rings.
Grandpa watched me graduate.
Grandpa was a poet
Grandpa had rough hands.
Grandpa used to smoke
Too much
On our little patio
Or the balcony where he read.
Grandpa read.
Grandpa read good books.
Grandpa was weird.
Grandpa told us to never
Give up learning Spanish
Or let anyone make us feel small.
Grandpa taught us heartache ends
When your veins tire
Of pumping blood to your heart
For another.
Grandpa showed us Yeni y Nan,
Andrés Bello, and Devendra Banhart.
Grandpa, sometimes abuelito,
Made the best arepas.
Grandpa sat in his big chair
Reading headlines
On a tiny, cracked iPhone screen—
Told us “the screens were smaller
When I was your age.”
Grandpa traveled,
Gave us shells from Greece,
A sake set,
Straw hats from Puerto Rico.
Grandpa was a poet.
Grandpa had rough hands.
Grandpa had wrinkled skin—
Brown, wizened, soft skin.
Grandpa wore suits.
Grandpa said his grandpa wore suits,
Was a journalist,
Died when he was two.
Grandpa smoked too much.
Grandpa didn’t drink too much.
Grandpa said spinach made him
Live well into eighty-seven.
Grandpa was relaxed,
At last,
After working so long.
Grandpa had rough hands.
Grandpa liked the word “tender.”
Grandpa liked Indian cheese,
But told us queso guayanes was superior.
Grandpa was a poet.
Grandpa was a poet
In New York City.
Grandpa had a small, greying mustache.
Grandpa was soft.
Grandpa was a rolling stone.
Grandpa was the river.
Grandpa was the Orinoco.
Grandpa was the Cerro El Ávila.
Grandpa was Miami Beach.
Grandpa was the Chrysler Building.
Grandpa was the cherry tree,
Six years after his passing.
Grandpa was a poet.
Grandpa was a poet.
Grandpa was a poet.
Grandpa had rough hands.

________

E.R. PULGAR is a Venezuelan-American poet, promoter, and music journalist living in Brooklyn. Born in Caracas, he was raised in Miami and picked up his parent’s copy of Pablo Neruda’s ‘Odas elementales’ around the same time he picked up an issue of ‘Rolling Stone’. His music and culture writing has appeared in Billboard, i-D, Remezcla, PAPER, Office, and V Magazine. An occasional host at the Bowery Poetry Club, he is working on his debut collection, ‘Liturgy’. His writing deals with love, loss, Latinidad, and the intersection of all three.