Juan Mobili

Learning to Count

my grandfather used to count the days /
... he used the clouds birds people         
Mosab Abu Toha

 I could say my grandfather
was more silent gaze
and faint smile
than full sentences.

 In poems about grandfathers
I listen to their silence
the quiet way they count days,
and hold stones.

 I question the scholar devoted
to the history of punctuation,
that periods and commas
were early aids to learn,
to pause reading aloud.

Why not gazing quietly
or inviting a thought
the length of a slowly formed smile
shy in its joy?

 What if counting
stones or clouds or birds
would punctuate our lives?