When Grandpa turned 84,
he started obsessing about death,
as several of his family members
had died at that age, and then
he had a series of small strokes
and started seeing people
who didn’t seem to be there,
like the old man he saw
sitting on the hearth
just staring into space,
not in a mean or scary way,
but as if he’d lost his train of thought
and was trying to remember
what he’d been saying
before he sat down
next to the fireplace.
