Aloevera and the Blossomless Bougainvilleas

It was just four years ago.
When I saw you planting aloe-vera
By our blossomless bougainvilleas.

They were young, unlike you,
Grandma, (I called you “Mah-mah”)
They, bursting plump with jelly-like pulp inside,
You, with calloused hands and thinner lips,
And that old smiling face.

And the Aloe-vera flourished,
Growing bigger, and more, and happy-looking,
But the bougainvilleas, oh, I don’t quite know,
They never quite did it,
Never quite thrived,
But I still, kind of, hoped they would.

Then jaundice came and went for you,
Then cancer came, but you went,
And I saw you one last time, through the icy, reflective, impenetrable
Glass opening in the coffin,
And the ashes of the cremation were tossed to the sea
To swallow the sorrow of lost life.

And how I cried then,
Missing you, Mah-mah,
Not knowing for sure,
Cause you accepted Jesus,
Then said you later gave up.

Where did you go?

But the silent aloe-vera,
Carefree, happy,
Free to think of better things,
They grew, taller and taller,
Withstanding weeds and birds and those kinds of things.

And then, about six months ago, the neighbor came (for the garden was a bit out on the Condo corridor of our house)
And he asked if he could plant a garden there.

We said yes.

But Mom kept one plant of Aloe-Vera,
Just one, and planted it in a pot in our balcony
Before the neighbors face-lifted our garden.

The neighbors came to clear up things,
Adding pretty rocks and flowering plants (but the bougainvilleas they kept).
And it looked better that way.

But I missed the Aloe-vera
Grandma had planted.

Oh, but I missed you.

But one day, I was at the balcony, lamenting a little over the loss
Of our beloved aloe-vera,
When I saw the little green sprouts,
All around the only one we kept
In the pot.

And I closed my eyes,
And felt their tender little spikes on the edges,
And the smooth skin wrapping them,
And smiled.
And wondered if their mother-plant (or the un-thriving bougainvilleas) remembered
A pair of old, thin, kindly arms planting them there.