We talk the same now
but it wasn’t always like this:
as with turning on the
tap / faucet in opposing ways,
how to ask directions for the
toilet / bathroom, or revving
engines of Peace and Love
under a bonnet / hood.
Judgement was in the ‘right’
way to say English words –
my counting of thirdy, fordy; then
turdle as well. Always oarange,
this languid Nebraskan vocal
dulled consonants and stretched
vowels a mouth could not
get around with ease.
But talking the same now is the
‘Right’ way, a politics of
expression that replaces nuances
of sound for vitriol. The Fascists –
there is only one way to speak this
designation – coalesce in shouts of
the self over care for others. Accent
is no longer a divide, but rich / poor
and truth / lie reside respectively as
a chasm or are indistinguishable:
the two ‘great democracies’
I have straddled for a lifetime
sound the same, but are
no longer what they were.
Mike Ferguson
Picture Rupert Loydell