McCullough, Laura

Pig’s Tail Tongue

1. We waited to see what would happen
2. next, but there was no kiss, just an unkiss;
3.  
4. we remained bifurcated, speaking only
5. with tongues not in them, your words
6.  
7. across the space between us understandable,
8. the opposite of Mandarin and Cantonese.
9.  
10. If you wrote me a letter, I couldn’t read it,
11. but speak to me, and it’s all quite clear.
12.  
13. Sometimes a poem is like that: clear in
14. the air, full of knots on the page, or
15.  
16. the reverse, pictographs anyone can
17. apprehend, but otherwise filled with
18.  
19. obstructions. The man who invented
20. Esperanto was an ophthalmologist,
21.  
22. meaning he studied the science of eyes,
23. and he saw the barrier which wasn’t
24.  
25. about sound but apprehension. Roll
26. your pig’s tail tongue around my little
27.  
28. finger, word-slop our fodder, thrash
29. with me in the gutter of utterance.
30.  
31. You can tell a pig from the friends
32. he grunts with. Toss some pigs before
33.  
34. pearls, some cats to gold coins, let
35. the cows hear our music. Tell me
36.  
37. you see my eyes in Pig Latin, tell me
38. you love me in two ways or in some
39.  
40. unpronounceable way, unkiss me
41. so hard, I am kissed anyway.