Granny’s Cups

Mixed media. Paper cups sewn together with circles of paper inside including cyanotype on watercolor paper, sheet music, cotton fabric, handmade paper, printed photographs on cardstock, and watercolor on watercolor paper, all suspended from a velvet hanger.

Inspired by a poem my mother wrote about Helen, my great-grandmother.

What you can use
by Tabatha Yeatts

She tucks the stack of
small, clear cups into my hand,
along with a packet of saltines
and fun-size M&Ms.
Can you use these? she asks.
Sure, Granny, I say,
leaning over to kiss
her soft, cushiony cheek.

She used to peel tomatoes
before she sliced them
when she had a kitchen of her own.
It shows how much you love
the folks you're feeding
when you take the skin off, she said.

There's no counter here,
no knives, no tomatoes from the garden,
but there are meals,
regular-like-clockwork meals,
which come with a steady stream
of pill-holding cups she saves
to give.

It's been years
since she passed them to me,
but I keep using the little plastic cups
'til they break.
This morning as I tilted a bottle
to pour medicine for my son,
I thought, yes, Gran,
I can use your gifts.