Love in the Language Room

A room three storeys up

and many a story round

where ungainly albatrosses we

tried to leave the ground

as if speaking in tongues

dans le nord du pays de Galles.

Sexe et tristesse

à côté de la mer,

là-bas-longing to be elsewhere,

aground on Dogger Bank.

Not everything’s translation

or there’d be no originals.

In the spirit is the letter.

So I come to you,

my heart laid bare and

dictionary in hand

with my story in my native tongue

for you not quite to understand.