catapult magazine

Something, Someone Else

by Marissa Carpenter

Someday my grandfather will be as dead
            as the Latin language.
But his roots will continue, onward, upward,
            sideways and backways
into the strangest places of our family tree:
Someone else will eat a chocolate-covered cherry
            for his birthday and offer
            the rest of the box
            to the other sixty attendees.
Someone else will walk vigorously to and from…
                        everywhere.
Someone else will slick back their glossy hair
            with pomade every single morning.
Someone else will sing noisily, annoyingly, hilariously
            into late evenings and
            early mornings
            and feel like the whole world should be singing along
Someone else will pay attention
where no one else
has
Someone else will proclaim the name of Jesus with every beat
of their life’s drum, even if it’s a little broken — hitting it harder
so it still sounds out.
You are something else.