TAKE ME TO MY GRANDMOTHER’S SHRINE
(CHASE ME LIKE I’M FRANKENSTEIN)
Take me to my grandmother’s shrine
Where I caught lightning bugs
And they loved me
Tell me how she named me well
Tell me that she loved me
Take me to that little shrine
Chase me like I’m Frankenstein
Take me down the river walk
Bid me hollow out the tide
Tie me up with lace and ribbon
Send me off, in a tiny box
she took me down the river walk
her fingers heavy, made of lead
she left her shoeprints on the water
while floods rose hell around my head
Tell me that she raised me well
Tell me that she held me
Take me to that little shrine
Tell me how she loved me
Take me to my grandmother’s shrine
Bid me ride the hollow tide
Let’s pray loud—at the top of our lungs
Let’s raise hell among the dead
Tell me how she named me well
Tell me that she loved me
Ask me if I’m sleep deprived
Chase me like I’m Frankenstein
Take me to a little shop
On the side of the river walk
Tie me up with lace and ribbon
Send me off, in a tiny box
she took me to a pretty shop
she left her shoeprints on the floor
she could afford a little rock
she gave it to me to remember her by
Tell me that she sang so well
Tell me what she told me
don’t you dare forget me now
Tell me that she loved me
Take me to my grandmother’s shrine
Chase me, like I’m Frankenstein
Floods raise hell around my head—
Let’s raise hell among the dead
—from 2017 Rattle Young Poets Anthology
__________
Why do you like to write poetry?
Shoshanah Celia Machlay: “I love to write poetry because when I’ve written, I feel as if I’ve channeled something beautiful through me. It’s cleansing. Sometimes when I read my own work it seems foreign—I can’t believe I wrote it. I feel as if something bigger is speaking to me through my own words. It’s comforting.”
