By Michael Easton

A picture of my Grandmother,
this woman I never knew.
Taken at a retirement home in Belfast.
Smiling by the window in her room.
It is dark outside,
a television is going, noticeable
almost distracting in the background.
She is frail and hunched in her wheelchair.
paralyzed I'm told, on her left side
by a stroke. Yet,
smiling for the camera.
Not wanting to, this I can see,
but trying to give something.
Understanding, that someday a stranger
may ask about her, and when shown,
he'd see in this picture a woman
stronger than himself,
or anyone he knows.