Tribute To My Grandmother

I lie in bed unable to sleep
My grandmother died yesterday and I’m estranged from my Community

My thoughts travel back to Salford 7 where my grandmother had lived
The damp-looking leafy streets
The trees
The ultra-religious Jewish boys with tzitzits hanging out from their shirts,
the sides of their hair arranged in peyot

The local *Cheder I’d got expelled from
The cold and the dark of the streets
The smell of autumn evenings
Bonfire night and childish mischief

Finally I succumb to an exhausted sleep,
waking a few hours later to a long and lonely day


*preparatory Hebrew school