German Lesson

Cecily says to Miss Prism, I know

perfectly well that I look quite plain

after my German lesson. Love split

into guttural Anglo-Saxon, lusty, and Latinate

the romance, elevated, poly-

syllabic. You know German, and geology,

and things of that kind influence a man

very much, make a man

come, while French trills make him

treasure, romance. The Germanic toils outside,

sowing words for working

men, each letter’s bend shaped by warts

and all, tails drooped

from labor, stems heavy with mud

pie, no access to excrement. Characters squish

into scenes, pigs toward slaughter, now just bits

of bacon, boots squish into muck and pause,

space forms between the soul and the sock,

bearing phrases, sentence fragments. In transcripts of speech,

often an apostrophe will purge words of those grubby

gees. Really, if the lower orders don’t set us

a good example, what on earth is the use of them—

it’s all supposition.