although he didn’t smoke, grandad never went anywhere
without the old tobacco tin in his pocket
one day me and my brother asked him what he kept in it
some sand, grandad said
why do you keep some sand in a tobacco tin, we asked
where else would I keep it, he said
but why keep sand at all, we asked
it’s special sand, grandad said, it’s come all the way from France
we peered into his tin and stared for a while
French sand didn’t look very special, it looked like ordinary sand to us
why’s it so special, we asked
each grain represents an old friend of mine, he said
grandad must have had a lot of friends, we thought
did you go to the beach with them when you were a boy, we asked
yes, something like that, grandad said, snapping the lid shut,
asking the man for three 99s, two with red sauce
Nincsenek megjegyzések:
Megjegyzés küldése