Everything described in Hat Box was in fact in my grandmother’s box, except for the gun. She owned a gun, but I never held or even touched it. She was born around 1900, and it was not uncommon for young women in the 1920s to bob their long hair and save it tied with a ribbon. She did read to me from Revelations, and those words have haunted me ever since.

Grace Massey is the author of the chapbook A Future with Bromeliads (River Glass Books). Her poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net, and have been published in numerous journals, including Quartet, Thimble, Lily Poetry Review, and One Art.

W: gracemasseypoet.com