More Gravy

Grandma dipped the ladle in the gravy boat

Stirring the brown, sticky thick sauce 

Voices rose above the swirling dirge of moat

Ignorant to the silent loss

Empty chair where grandpa sat last Thanksgiving Day

Echoes of a broken heat beat

Pouring out and over turkey, gravy's spray

People dive in and start to eat

Mom and dad deliver puns; kids around fight 

Aunts and uncles laughing at this 

Grandma passes the potatoes, then stands right 

Speaks to the table, "Don't you miss

Grandpa's stories filling your hearts and minds at all?

Well, just hear the one I will tell.

Forty-two years ago, this time in the fall

Someone else came; filled up my pail-

Yes, he had his way with me, and eldest son, know

You were not grandpa's; not by birth.

I was raped, but kept you still; I didn't let go.

Yet he loved you and all your worth

Summed up in one word: family, and yours today

Love and laugh and live for all here."

Shocked to hear what grandma said, the chairs didn't sway

Leaning in, waiting in new fear

Dad gulped down his bite and longed for clarity 

Mom brushed back her hair, all wavy

Grandma smiled and looked around for all to see

Asking, "Who would like more Gravy?"