PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

When I was a kid, I used to go to my grandmother’s house on most evenings, right after I got out of school. She used to cook for me, we ate together, and then and only then I was allowed to play. Sometimes it was just my grandmother and I, but other times my cousins went there too. I was the youngest of the family, but even the ones who were already teens were willing to play with the rest of us. We used to build pillow fortresses, watch TV, play videogames, or whatever came to our young, imaginative minds at the moment. Her house was an old, small, and dusty one, but it had a certain smell that would take me back to those times if I smelled it again. She had a small patio where she kept some plants and hanged her clothes to dry, and there was a staircase in her patio that led to a small room on the roof. Now that I think about it, having a tiny room on top of a roof was a rather odd architectural decision, but that was the way it was. We didn’t go there often but I loved it when we did. The room was full of old stuff: books, clothing, toys, and other curiosities. One of the things that I remember the most from that room is the cornucopia of stuffed animals. She had the whole zoo over there, from good old teddy bears to teddy birds, cats and dogs. Some were hers; others were my mother’s or my aunt’s. All of them had a unique story. Some were bought, others were gifts given by past boyfriends to my mom and aunts, or maybe given at a hospital with a “get better soon” card after they had suffered from an accident. My favorite of them all was a white gorilla that held a banana in one hand and had the other one free to be put into its mouth or grabbed by its feet, just like the ones in those Kipling backpacks and purses that everyone owns lately, but instead of being able to fit the gorilla in my hand, this one was about the size of my small child body, imagine my awe! I haven’t seen my grandmother or been in her house in about 6 years or so. I wonder if that giant, old, dusty gorilla is still kept in that tiny room on top of a roof.