Stone House

Stone House
by Naomi Shihab Nye


My grandmother is dead
but her green trunk
must still be sitting. 
Sitting in the stone room

Image: "Antique Skeleton Key Necklace" by DecibelProductions  

with an arch
and a single window. 
Sitting in the cool light
that touches the chipped lid.
And I wonder where the key has gone. 
They key that lived 
between her breasts 
whether she slept or woke. 
And wouldn't let anybody touch.
I wonder if they have 
emptied the trunk 
or left her squares of velvet
carefully folded,
her chips of plates,
the scraps and rubble she saved
and wouldn't let us see.
Wouldn't let us see
because every life
needs a hidden place.
And I pray they
have not emptied it.


We brought her rosy soap
for the hidden place.
heavy wedge of chocolate
twisted in foil.
She tried to eat the foil.
We brought her nothing big enough
but she saved it all.
The uncle made fun of her.
She lived too long.
The Queen of Palestine.
She would turn her face away
when he said that.
He died first.


And we never stayed.
No we never stayed.
The trunk stayed.
The grapes shriveled in the village
and didn't come again.
This was a sadness beyond telling.
Maybe if they didn't mention it
the grapes would return.


The clay they used for jugs
also went away.
the young men
went away.
It was hard place to be
if you were staying.


Why do I think of that key
still planted firmly in the crack
over her heart?
She used to say the stone
was smarter than people
because it never went away.



Naomi Shihab Nye's grandmother had lived to the age of 106 before she passed away in Palestine. On a surface level this poem was written due to the authors wondering what happened to a green chest that her grandmother had owned; and if it had been disturbed after her grandmother had died. The key to the chest was worm around her grandmother's neck "whether she slept or woke." She did this so no one else would ever be able to see what was inside. 


The author justifies her grandmothers decision to never allow anyone to open the chest by saying "every life needs a hidden place." In this chest her grandmother would keep "her squares of velvet carefully folded, her chips of plates, the scraps and rubble she saved." I interpret her grandmother keeping these broken plates and other pieces of rubble, as her grandmother's collection of the pieces of her life before some destructive event must have occurred in it She kept these destroyed pieces as a connection to her past, but also hid them away so no one else could see what she has lived through.  She also keeps them hidden so she can reflect on these things by herself, they are a part of her that she wants to keep private, and every person is entitled to that.


The author describes that she would also buy things for her grandmother to keep in her trunk, such as soap and chocolate. She comments that "We brought her nothing big enough, but she saved it all." This means that although she did not give her anything of great value, but her grandmother regarded every gift they gave her as something worth saving.


She mentions that her grandmother would look away the authors uncle would refer to her as "The Queen of Palestine." She had lived such a long life, and she very much loved her culture, but she had also seen many tragic things, and to be "Queen" would acknowledge those events as well.  Also she was a modest woman, who would treasure everything she was given, she would not view herself as a queen. 


The author tells us that she herself never stayed in Palestine, only visited, but her grandmother had both lived and died there. The author begins to hint at the destruction plaguing the country, and how Palestine "was hard place to be if you were staying." The grapes that once grew began to die, and she says that "the young men went away." I interpret this as meaning they were either killed, or left to go fight in the conflicts that were occurring in their world.

The author states that the key was "planted firmly in the crack over her [grandmothers] heart." It held access to part of who she used to be, and the only remnants can be found within the green chest. The author prays that the contents of the chest, and her grandmothers past has not been disturbed, but in actuality I think she knows that there is a good chance it has been. In her final statements, she tells us that her grandmother used to say "the stone was smarter than people because it never went away." What this means that the stone house is still there, and the house itself will become the last piece of her grandmothers life that is still in existence. The stone will outlive everyone in their village, and has seen everything the people themselves have gone through.  It must be "smarter" because it will still be there when everyone else is gone.