Grandfather's Heaven

My grandfather told me I had a choice.

Up or down, he said. Up or down.

He never mentioned east or west.

 

Grandpa stacked newspapers on his bed

and read them years after the news was relevant.

He even checked the weather reports.

 

Grandma was afraid of Grandpa

for some reason I never understood.

She tiptoed while he snored, rarely disagreed.

 

I liked Grandma because she gave me cookies

and let me listen to the ocean in her shell.

Grandma liked me even though my daddy was a Moslem.

 

I think Grandpa liked me too

though he wasn’t sure what to do with it.

Just before he died, he wrote me a letter.

 

“I hear you’re studying religion,” he said.

“That’s how people get confused.

Keep it simple. Down or up.”

Naomi Shihab Nye, Different Ways to Pray: Poems (Breitenbush Publications, 1980)