TE19 Iberian Adventure

Second Tongue

There arewhole towns tripping over their tongues to speak.

When you tell me you can’t tell the difference between the languages I speak I want to split your lip so you’d know what It’s like to have two tongues –like in Korea, yes?

There are tongues

held far away from me.

There are tongues roll out of the mouth

just to hold up the placards. Tongues still wounded from being bitten so long.

Bloody tongues, a fish hook stuck in the laryngeal cartilage.

Sounds that slide from an oral nook I cannot find, sounds that attend to the waves of self-extermination. There’s nothing left for it my King of silences, I am a slave to my words and I’ll be condemned for my tongue.

And so: cinza, cercella, zazamelo. None of that Galisia , none of your Galitzia , listen up now: it’s Ga-li-thee-a .

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