Heart of A Tiger

Cousin Terry
First thing I remember about that day
Walking back from the projects, ready to play
I guess it was a hot summer day
I'm not sure what time of year
or even certain of what year
I never choose to ask
Never try to work out the math
but we was outside all day so it must've been summer
Bathroom
Number 2
Wash and rinse
Hands dryed on my shirt
Next, i see images of the same
livin room where the christmas tree used to hang like it felt right at home
Where did Terry go?
...the front do'
Grandma always said play starts and stops at the front do'
but what lied on the other side of that front do'
I wish i couldn't see no mo'
What is he doing?
What is he hittin?
He not playin
I hear my aunt let out this sound
A yell,
a wail,
a whale of a wail
I saw my Aunt swing a broom with all the power she could muster
Him,
Her brother...
Grabbing it, Breaking it, throwing it
Right back to hurting her
Oh my God he's hurting her
Grandma...
Come!
Run!
911
Run back, front yard
Her own son
Him
Sittin there
like nothing just happened
I was seven years old
if that
And when i look back
I see a bloody hammer
I dont know when it was used
I dont know how it was used
I didn't even look at her
Looking back, I probably couldn't even look at her
Or maybe I saw
And its tucked away in some vault
All i remember is that feeling that we couldn't get him off
Her own son
Beside the same bush we used pluck honeysuckles off
She layed there,
right under the rose bush
I remember her flowers
Her big rock by the driveway
And how she would work on her yard for hours
Devotement
How she would let me help
Involvement
This time i couldn't help her out in that garden
They're taking him to jail
Grandma's on an ambulance
All I can picture is the back of that ambulance
Then the back of the hospital
Its dark
I hear my mom billow i hate him, i hate him, i hate him, i hate him, i hate him
Mommy always taught me never to hate
Grandma's on a helicopter flying to Duke
We're in a car i can't recall, flying to Duke
I never thought Grandma would die
and she didn't, I remember her most for fighting to stay alive
Horizon
Medicine balls, mirrored walls, matted seats, maybe blue
everything in that room seems blue
not a sad blue
just blue
A blue Horizon
but thats where Grandma got her strength back
They say the second she woke up, she asked for me
could it be because she knew i was there?
I cryed writing that right there
I hear Grandma's cane
tipping down that same hall
where i dried my hands on my shirt
"Gramma's slow baby" but she made it work
Thats where we get our toughness from
The heart of a tiger