Mind Around Spanish
Spanish Around My Mind
for Emilia Villalobos

all kinds of ways
to wander away from Spanish

all kinds of things to wonder about
to contemplate, besides

owe it to Emilia
and to all our afternoons together

in that room, at that round table
at Universidad de Costa Rica,
in San Jose

to attach to Spanish
to be attached to it
to maintain attachment

she labouring away
to make me belong to it
to make it belong to me

I've a certificate now as well
sent through the post

with the university's
president's signature
affixed to it

to say that I did attend
that I did study

must have something
to show for it, in terms
of knowledge of Spanish

sound of the rain outside
at present,
my having to go quickly

close the windows
of my house on all sides

cause me to recall Emilia
and me and our lessons
and when it would rain

the rain would beat in
and we would, together
shut that one window
in our small room

I'd have to spend six months
Emilia suggested

to get a really good grip
good grasp of Spanish
to get a handle on it

oh, the many other things
I have to get a handle of
to get a handle on

art that is a language
that is universal

poetry the language
I speak well

I miss Emilia and Costa Rica
and the struggle learning was

what good company she was
to look forward to
each week-day

week-ends without her
while with her,
were long


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2011
8:44 p.m. 11.09.11