Art: Quai de Seine

Languages

I translate the words to English for him.
He says he gets it. I know he gets the
translation. But he doesn’t get the song.
To understand the song, he would have to
learn the language. He tells me he will learn
for the song.

Days he spends, training his tongue.
Turning it sharp. Turning it savage.
Days he asks me if he is saying,
this or that right. When I have
the patience, I correct his mistakes.
Sometimes I just nod.

The words sound foreign in his
mouth. The vowels slip out
before he can embed them fully
on his tongue. The consonants sit
on top of it. Perching,
like guests on sofas.

Now when I kiss him his tongue feels
different. Clumsy.

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Durre has an MA in Creative Writing from Cardiff Metropolitan University. She writes fiction, non-fiction and poetry about gender, ethnicity and mental health. Her work has been published in the anthologies: How To Exit a Burning Building (Parthian Books, 2015) and Metropolitan Volume 1 (Cardiff Metropolitan Press, 2015). She currently juggles a day job, different writing projects, book reviews, and hopes to do a PhD in the future. She is a regular contributor to Wales Arts Review. She can be found on Twitter or on her Blog.