Things My Mother Calls Things
Abraham Aondoana
There are a lot of things that my mother calls things.
Pass me that thing.
Don't touch that thing.
That thing again.
The word holds
plastic bowls, bad news,
a headache, which will not identify itself,
the generator of the neighbor which was coughing at night.
When she says that thing,
I know exactly what she means--
not the object,
but the inconvenience that comes with it.
This is how we survive:
by compressing feeling
to syllables which suit the mouth,
by causing language to carry on.
when the hands are tired.
