Language I Don’t Speak

Originally posted 10/25/2013.

I don’t.
Not.
Can’t.

A word was here and then
no,
can’t,
gone.

Negative space?
Nothing there?
Not exactly, no.

A revelation through absence?
No,
the figure
has no ground
so I don’t
ground, here.

No one here gets
how much swamp of

no, 
can’t, 
won’t

there is.

Must figure
it, figure out how I
may say whether 

there is 
“yes”
to be found. See

I was fluent
an hour ago up until
those eyes, that 
flash.

I build a yes.
Make one from scratch.  Teach
my tongue what flash
means, what shared yes
is, how to thrill together with

what we put,
what we
place,
what we set to flight.

How to mean what’s
in our mouths,

how to
pass it between.