The Monolingual’s Regret
Polylinguists lash me
with tongues I cannot conjugate
but one can hear meaning
without seeing it
as in songs without words
and I can understand
the polylinguists's angry
disappointment that I have
but the one tongue
and it grows a bit slow and numb
in the mouth beginning
to disintegrate with age.
with tongues I cannot conjugate
but one can hear meaning
without seeing it
as in songs without words
and I can understand
the polylinguists's angry
disappointment that I have
but the one tongue
and it grows a bit slow and numb
in the mouth beginning
to disintegrate with age.
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Author's Note
I have just the one language and some days it feels like it's beginning to leave
Other stories by Gary Hardaway
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Triste.*
The trick is to know how to tell people to f-off in more than one language--that's all you need to know. *
What Con said, and to order another beer. *
Schade! What Matt and Con said, and to tell the police you've only had the one beer.
"the one tongue." Not one tongue. THE one tongue. Don't know why that works so well for me, but it does.
Love the play here, Gary. And especially the notion that words never quite get at the bottom of intention.
"but one can hear meaning
without seeing it"
No conjugations required.
Tasty poem and sentiment.
*
but one can hear meaning
without seeing it
Nice *
Thanks to everyone for the responses. I am grateful.
Agree with Steven about the use of THE.
...but the one tongue...
Maybe this is the best reason for reading >
to replace the words that are running out of the burning house we call the memory. *