Queueing for Ice Cream by Brian Bilston


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