accents

at twelve i landed on the beach & heard:
say garage. say peter. say christopher.

ugly petra with the frizzy hair & horrid glasses
chanted singsong: you can't speak like an aussie
but i can talk like a yank you can't speak like an
aussie... she couldn't of course but i let her
keep her fantasy

& just when i lost the er's & found the ah's
i moved again & heard:
say glass. say tomato. say christopher.

humiliated myself by asking to borrow rebecca's rubber
in the middle of mrs weber's physics class.

katrina grace craig
1 july 1996
issaquah washington

"flirting with edges"
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