Is This What It’s Like in Heaven?

Grandpa holds a log
of hard salami he
smuggled in from
Russia, cuts a chunk
off with his knife,
pops it in my mouth.
Fat and salt melt
on my tongue.

Grandma makes that
funny face when
he hugs her. Their
fingers wrap.
She looks into his
eyes and smiles, the
droop of her eyelids
a twin to mine.

Thank you for not
forgetting us, she
presses a plate of
burnt toast into
my hands. You
know we love you,
since before
you were born.

Before I can say
goodbye, they
fade into my
lost childhood,
but my heart
still wings out of
my chest towards a
love that never dies.

published in Levatio’s Serenity first issue