Caroline's poem for her grandmother Rose's book, "Times to Remember."

JOHN
He paints his bathroom walls in the middle of the night,
He comes into my room and unscrews every light,

Swinging on a door smeared with Crazy Foam
Singing to himself, 'Consider Yourself at Home."*

At four in the morning you can find him making glue
In the back hall near his guinea pig zoo.

He is trying to grow sea monkeys in his toothbrush glass.
You can see it on his teeth which bear a coating like grass.

He comes spinning in my room jabbing left and right
Shouting, OK, Caroline, ready for a fight.

He is trying to blow us up with his chemistry set,
He has killed all the plants but we've escaped as yet.

He loves my mother's linen sheets and hates his own percale.
He can imitate the sounds of the humpback whale.

I love him not just because I oughter
But also because blood runs thicker than water."