her legs

my grandmother's stockings
were
pulled up around
her fat piano legs,
calf high,
but would soon unravel
and slip
down into her snow boots.
the boots were my grandfather's
boots actually,
which he no longer wore,
seeing that he was dead
and buried
years ago, his name rarely
mentioned because of the strange
and beautiful
woman who showed up and cried
at his funeral.
the stockings
were the same color
as her legs,
a creamy flesh tone,
if your flesh was that of
a store mannequin,
except for the blue veins
that bulged out.
being small, our heads
up to her waist, we spent
a lot of time staring
at her legs beneath
her black dress,
forever in mourning,
as she shuffled about the kitchen,
kicking at us gently,
speaking in Italian,
singing, sometimes whistling.
they were muscled and thick
with knobs and splotches.
they looked like roadmaps,
relief maps
of northern Italy where
she was born
and learned to cook the meal
she was now
cooking for us.