granny.

i tried to tell my grandmother that i liked somebody. she told me in her West Indian accent that sounds like roosters as the sun comes up and smells like plantains frying for lunch and looks like the reflection of the sun on waters as warm as heart, "i tired tell yuh, yuh don't like people. yuh love people, yuh like tings." [i'm tired of telling you, you don't like people, you love people. you like things but you love people]
to which i replied, "are you saying i love him?"
"i'm saying, there are different degrees of love."

well then, there you have it. moving right along, we spoke about conflict between people who are supposed to be close.

her words of wisdom? "teet an tongue does bite. no matta how close dey be, teet an tongue does bite."
[you still bite your tongue. as close as your teeth and your tongue are, your teeth still cause harm to your tongue.]  as if to say, that no matter how close you are to somebody, conflict will be there.  it doesn't have to tear you apart. i mean, your teeth never leave your tongue and your tongue never leaves your teeth. they coexist even when it hurts.

then she started talking about my temper. she said, if you grab a goat to kill it, the goat screams and makes so much damn noise. but if you do the same to a sheep, the sheep goes quietly, doesn't make a sound.  she asked, which one am i?  screaming, yelling and shaking the earth won't change the fact that i'm dying.  i might as well live this life gracefully.