French Immersion
June 18 2008


The best way to learn how to speak
is falling in love.
You smile, you shrug
you make signs, you touch,
fumbling with unaccustomed shyness.
Your speech is child-like,
which keeps life marvellously simple.
And the first time she whispered in your ear
nothing was lost in translation.
And now, making love
you forget all about
syntax and conjugation,
because her tongue has a language all its own
only the two of you truly know.

This is like a river
where it runs-up against the sea,
the bracing mixture of salt and sweet.
And the tide, pushing back,
turning fresh water brackish.
Or ocean currents, when they collide,
welling-up in new life
churning the air into weather.

Because it’s on the margins
on the edge
where differences rub-up together.
Where two people meet
with just enough friction for sparks,
and tongue-tied lovers
learn a new language by heart.