Speech Class

By: Jim Daniels

We were outcasts—

you with your stutters,

me with my slurring—

and that was plenty for a friendship.

When we left class to go to a therapist

we hoped they wouldn't laugh—

took turns reminding the teacher:

"Me and Joe have to go to shpeesh clash now,"

or "M-m-me and J-Jim ha-have to go to

s-s-speech now."

Mrs. Clark, therapist, was also God, friend, mother.

Once she took us to the zoo on a field trip:

"Aw, ya gonna go look at the monkeys?"

"Maybe they'll teach you how to talk."

We clenched teeth and went

and felt the sun and fed the animals

and we were a family of broken words.

For years we tried so hard

and I finally learned

where to put my tongue and how to make sounds

and graduated.

3 devices: Prose, Personification, Cacaphony

Poetry Dig

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