Like most families, mine has its ____________.

What We Find If We Look Grandma lived beside the Peach orchard in a home With adobe walls with gunshot Holes, which now are hidden Underneath the siding, if you Look.  Her father, Pedro, Died of TB and carried a whip On the factory floor where Children made pretty Costa Rican tiles for export. When he rode his horse from La fabrica past the women At the water’s edge their eyes Rose from their laundry, But did he dismount to          ? Maybe Grandpa and his company’s Solenoids were for tanks and jets, But would they strike with Iraqis Against Iranians in the Fertile Crescent, or join the Mujahedin? Why in the drawer, the mother Of pearl inlaid           in a gift box? Is the baby in the photo My             , who we didn’t know ‘Til Dad’s heart failed, when Mom Confirmed it as documents Came alive from deep in his chest? Or what value the          he made at                  when Mom was pregnant                                              ?

So I gathered from my sister Who heard from Mom, or was it Aunt Shay? Please don’t tell Mom Or about Dad’s reaction when I told him Grandma died, since He thought the               was finally Sunk cold in the oceans of gone Maybe Mom would not have                  to him a thousand times To not grow up until her sixties. And maybe that explains why                   was cowering amongst The groves in her            s Or how she                          night              ‘til                      grief And maybe the night Of tears when Dad and I In bed with the Sinner’s Prayer and maybe if I’d Care to look under the siding It’s never too long Ago to stick your finger Deep into the hole And find the grit the gunshot Made as it entered in