Born a Crime

with us as well. We called her Koko.
She was super old, well into her
nineties, stooped and frail,
completely blind. Her eyes had gone
white, clouded over by cataracts.
She couldn’t walk without someone
holding her up. She’d sit in the
kitchen next to the coal stove,
bundled up in long skirts and head
scarves, blankets over her
shoulders. The coal stove was
always on. It was for cooking,
heating the house, heating water for
baths. We put her there because it
was the warmest spot in the house.
In the morning someone would
wake her and bring her to sit in the