This was written after visiting my mom and grandfather in Alabama in 2021, when my grandfather moved from Tennessee. For the first time, I got to know my grandfather as an adult, not just a grandkid. Even though we have very different views on most things, we bonded about the loss of a pet, and I realized that even if I didn’t understand him and he didn’t understand me, we both were open to healing.

Alyx Chandler (she/her) is a writer from the South who received her MFA in poetry at the University of Montana, where she was a Richard Hugo Fellow and taught composition and poetry. Her poetry can be found in the Southern Poetry Anthology, Greensboro Review, The Penn Review, SWWIM, and elsewhere.

W: alyxchandler.com
X: @AlyxChandler
I: @Alyxabc
F: Alyx Chandler