DÉCOUVRIR LE CIEL

doesn't even know
another language
exists

but he likes
the sound
steals this 'CIEL'

from a passing conversation
hoards such words
...such sounds.

loves their texture
their taste
upon the tongue

he thinks it says
"See...L."
why the hell - 'L'?

can't count for nuts
so doesn't even know
it's the alphabet's 12th letter

but likes the fact that
he has 2 'L's'
in his name

and so he acquires
language in such
little broken bits like this

his dyslexia loves it
that's enough for him
he's fallen for the letter 'L'

he's amazed when
in palm and psalm
it refuses to speak up for itself

years later 'CIEL' will
become the sky
in French

well, well..'CIEL'
who would have
thought it

even now
his dyslexia
that magpie of the mind

will morph words
shape shift
sound

his brain
second guessing
what it's found

so that passing in a car
the Clavadel Convalescence Home
you know the one

with the cow outside
in its pyjamas
and with a bandaged knee

becomes....the clavicle
in his warping mind
and his head chants

"the clavicle...the clavicle
there's nothing like
the clavicle . . .

for extending
the manubrium
of the sternum

and the acromion
of the scapula!"
before the dyslexia lets go

and so
Eliot's mystery cat
becomes

a mash up with
filched medical
knowledge

the dyslexia laughs
"That's my boy!"
ah well...

the English language
goes to 'L'
in a handcart

and all's well
that ends well
even if it doesn't

me and that boy
I was and
still am

continue
in tandem to
both invent and

...discover the sky
...découvrir le ciel
...inventer le ciel!