i speak static
am fluent in typo
but despite my attempts
despite thirty years of study
I am unable to learn
the strange idioms
the illogical conjugations
the irregular and bizarre
language that is love
i am faux pas
i am slip of the tongue
i am twisted contractions
i am translation failed
i am constantly insulting the natives
i don't even know how to ask
where the library is
or "how much is this?"
i still travel the land
i still navigate the transportation system
i am, at times, able to un-lose myself
amongst foreigners in their homeland
and the mountains and gutters and steel
however, the tongue alludes me
and most of the time
all i can do is point, grunt, shake my head, or smile
and hope for the best
About Me
- Janice Brabaw
- New York, New York
- Janice Brabaw is the author of Universe, Disturbed, her first collection of poetry that draws directly from her teenage and college journals when she suffered from debilitating depression. She is also the author of And Again: A Memoir of a Life Disordered which chronicles her struggles with depression and borderline personality disorder. And Again is slated to be released in 2009 and Universe, Disturbed is currently in it's second edition. Janice Brabaw lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. She runs the literary & musical series, Stained Glass Confessional in Brooklyn and has read at The Bowery Poetry Club, Otto's Shrunken Head, The Cake Shop, and the Library Lounge series at Telephone Bar. Her work has appeared in Poesis, The Toronto Quarterly, Ophelia Street, The Record, and the Cartier Street Review. More information about Janice can be found at www.JaniceBrabaw.com
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