Game 51

​CHI 91               CHA 108

What walks on three legs in the morning...
​-The Riddle of the Sphinx

Part 1

I write in the morning
Because that’s when I’m most honest.

We have filters
That get stronger through time.

Filters that distort honesty--
Turn it into something else.

Something just as important.

Part 2

I learned Spanish as an adult,
Sort of.

Pretty impossible
To really learn a language
As a grownup.

Especially in college.

But I was in school
Studying to become a teacher--

And so I minored in Spanish
Because I’m smart.

But once I was in those
Upper-level classes,
All the other students
We’re native speakers.

Actually fluent.

And I may have gotten better grades,
But they sure as hell
Had it easier.

Jibbering and jabbering the whole time,
While I stared at the instructor’s lips--

Squinting--
Holding my breath.

Like a sniper.

The point is this:

Language is learned
Through imitation.

So shit kids say
Is shit kids hear.

Part 3

In elementary school,
Kids knew way more
About my home life
Then I had told them.

And one day
When the teacher was chastising me
For falling asleep in class--

Allende announced:
His daddy’s a drunk!

That was all it took.

Looking back,
I can’t help wondering
If he was coming to my defense.

Like:
Leave him alone, teacher.
His dad was probably drunk.
And he didn’t have nobody
Looking after him.

But the thing is
He was right.

My daddy was a drunk.

And so I punched Allende
And then punched him some more.

And maybe it wasn’t
His whoopin to take,

But he took it
Like a champ.