The Tongue

in my mouth is as fat as a cow’s tongue, still I want to ask the woman at the next table what she’s saying into her phone. A tongue, a cow’s tongue tastes like the rest of the cow.Cow tastes like cow, an aunt once said in an accent as sweet as Arkansas dirt. Someone, in English, told me I don’t carry my vowels like anyone they know. I’ve tried, but my tongue won’t move like my aunt’s nor like anyone else’s in my family. I ain’t makin’ sense, they’d say if they were me. Why don’t I talk like us anymore? Anyway...Every other word, the woman slips into English. The way a train window trades a dead city for a dead suburb; a posh row for a cow pasture.Duct cleaning, Thai Bistro,