The prompt was to use the sounds of home, how things were said
As a child there
As a child there
was Spanish spoken
my mother’s first
language and
then the English
of the father’s
There came a time
we moved away
from the land where
speaking Spanish
brooked no alarms
going to a place far
below the Mason-Dixon
in the deep South
to the people
of the second father
to find that another
kind of English
was the native tongue
And ya’ll was a noun
and a pronoun
and it could be
singular or plural
while bless your heart
was not meant to
seek the Lord’s
intervention in the
care of your heart
rather as a means to
call one dumb as
a bag of hammers
or unable to accomplish
simple tasks
like finding your
ass with both hands
in your back pockets
When telling grandpa
who was pretty old
that his fly was open
he told me simply
that a dead bird
doesn’t fall from the nest
No matter what
was about to be done
everybody was fixin to
when telling Granny
any kind of untruth
she’d lean way back
and look you dead in
your eye and tell you
that dog won’t hunt
The first time one
of the aunts said
butter my biscuit
I went to the kitchen
to look for a biscuit
and some butter
Uncles would tell you
that they might could
carry you to the store
but you’d have to wait
cause it was so hot
that the chickens were
laying hard boiled eggs
For a good long while
I didn’t understand
what was being said
I’d smile and nod
trying to puzzle it out
in the context of all that
had come before
but in the end it
turned out alright
I got to where
I understood them
pretty well
So excuse me now
I gotta get back to work
you know idle hands
are the devil’s work
but before you go
could ya’ll cut
them lights off
and make sure the
hose pipe ain’t dripping
Ya’ll come back now
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