Mystery

Nate Wilbert

May 1, 2021

Last memories of my grandma

include papers jammed in brown manila

folders going back generations.

The family tree if you cared to see.

She pulled, planted, and cultivated 

our ancestry by the bed.

I think about it now. 

I think about how we’re each heading

to mystery pulled or pushed 

or broke

or mending and man do I want to see.

But what I see is being

carried up the gold stairwell after hours 

down bright halls to your room

dad sharing with me

this is your brother

while mom lay asleep.

Delight and nascent pride join me

for the dark ride home.

Then, as now, as in the mystery 

you are my brother, my earliest memory.

Nate Wilbert is a husband, data nerd, living in the Adirondacks, and writing poetry at Empty The Empyrean.