Unbroken

This week's readwritepoem prompt was to think about things we never said to our mothers. I chose to focus instead on my mother's mother.

I want you
to know—
She protected my
memories of you,
let me keep them
She allowed me
to navigate the
solemn truth
that some
of your genes
might live
in me and trend
toward addiction
and the truth
that the almost 6
years of love
you gave me before
you died are as
real as anything
else in your life
or in mine
You would be
proud of her
and I thank
you for
the jagged
but unbroken
line
that runs
between me
and her
and you.