Mum's World

Mum’s world
was home baking when she was well
and Vesta chow mein when she wasn’t
Granny’s at the weekend
And chicken soup
Mum said I could be a
Bit of a madam sometimes
But she and Granny both
Liked my Mae West impression
Its not the men in my life
Its the life in my men
Mum said Dad didn’t have much life in him
And laughed and granny laughed and I laughed too
Even though I was only six
And didn’t know what she meant


There were different worlds
Mum’s world was about family
We visited Granny on the weekend and
Sometimes Auntie Reva and Uncle Harry
Would come up with cousin Howard
And me and my brother would whisper and giggle
Because cousin Howard talked funny and
Looked half asleep most of the time
And never played with us
No-one said what why except that he
Went to a special school

Auntie Reva was a bit too much
of a grown up for us and she would tell off
Uncle Harry when he sat on the floor
and played Cat’s Cradle with us
We liked Uncle Harry, he was full of army tales
And had funny teeth and a cheeky grin
You couldn’t imagine him and
Auntie Reva kissing or anything
and to this day
I still cant


At home we ate dad’s clumsy stir fries and
Mum’s burgers which
I always looked forward
To and I got upset when
My friend Lisa came up
For tea one night and said she didn’t like them
I didn’t invite her up again

The year I won the Cup in Cheder
I made my Mum proud
Especially since I beat Clara Massie
Mum said, the look on her mother’s face!

At Granny’s we became Jewish again
With eager trips for food
Kleinbergs for eggloaf greedily guzzled
Picklemeat placating me as I stirred the
butchers sawdust into circles with a bored foot
kneidlich floating in chicken soup
matzobri thrilling yellow on the plate
salting before that first saliva-flood bite
cinnamon balls and coconut pyramids
Passover Pesach and the rituals of Hannuka
Egg and the symbolic blood
Matzo crackers embraced in cloth
Grandpa in his yarmulkeh intoning the brochah
The wine passed round and the candles lighting
Up our faces as the ancient tales were told