Photography, 16” x 16”, Framed

Inheritance

By Kortney Sebben

A spinning wheel

sits on red linoleum.

Atop it rests a slab of 

polished wood. Grandma jabs 

at bread dough, 

beats the flour into it.

Diamonds glitter her fingers--

one would never presume

these are working hands.

I was born watching as she 

measured and worked 

memories into metallic pans.

Somehow, I’ve allowed

Mother to miscalculate these 

memories…

“Complicated,” she says.

But could it be memory is

reborn within us –  

less sugar here, more there?

Which granules of Grandma’s

reside in my bones? Because

I would love to think

I exist within a

metallic pan, the perfect

combination of 

chemistries.