but he wanted more, so he bought tickets for him to go to the sydney-fremantle grand final, so he can

cheer them on his their way, you see tommy felt liked at the footy club, despite him never strapping on a boot

so he felt he could say anything to anyone and not have to deal with the consequences, so he started to

argue with this collingwood supporter, who really gave tommy heaps, and tommy said, you are a worthless

nobody, and your team is ****, so ******* away from me, for you see i am the local bbq man, i do it every year

and i want you to treat me good, because it’s good that i do that, yeah, but the lady said, who gives a hoot

on who or what you are, you are causing me ****, ya know and i am going to bash you up, and i will, don’t you worry, hey

you see after that she left to watch the footy in the bar, to get away from tommy cause he talks ****, and this really hyped tommy up

and made him cheer loud for sydney sydney sydney oi oi oi , sydney sydney sydney oi oi oi , and this made the people behind tommy

mad and started to get rowdy, and one guy wanted to lay into tommy saying, you can’t help people, you are a lying *******

who is looking up at your dead cat, who is making you alright, and then from out of the blue, tommy’s friend from the bbq came over

to him and sat in the seat and said, tommy you deserve credit, ya know, much better seats than these, how about next year we give you

better seats, and tommy said, are you sure i deserve it, i only do the bbq, mate, and they said, **** yeah, oh **** yeah, you work very hard

every day you come, and we feel like making youn a life time member of the swans, because that is your favourite team, isn’t it

tommy was ever so happy, and jumped for ****** joy, and said, i love sydney, and i hope they win, boy would i think that is cool

you see tommy went to the toilet and came back to his seat and got a big surprise, you see suddenly all his mates from the club he did

the bbq for were there to cheer him on, one man gave him a swans clock, another gave him a few champagne flutes filled with champagne

and another gave him a million dollars, so he can travel around the world, tommy thanked them for his presents, and then went over to

the toilet block, and there was ernie pallet who had a better surprise for him, you see tommy was amazed and tommy was happy too

tommy felt like giving tommy a very big hug, you see tommy was given a very big hug, by adam goods, because of what tommy was talking about

aboriginal rights, man that sounds so right, and adam gave him $4,000,000 to put into his account for when he grew older, this will make him happier

oh yeah, mate ****** yeah, so at the end of the game sydney won and all tommy’s friends amazingly disappeared along with all the gifts, which made

tommy look up and look down, and everywhere around but no gifts in sight, and another thing, it wasn’t the grand final, either it was round ****** 12

and he was at the game between sydney and collingwood missing an all important bbq, and instead of saying he is good, they lefty awful curse words

on his mobile phone, saying he let them down, what a ****** of an imagination i have

you see tommy kiddlestone was a very good bbq man, and was told he was a good worker all the time

but he wanted more, so he bought tickets for him to go to the sydney-fremantle grand final, so he can

cheer them on his their way, you see tommy felt liked at the footy club, despite him never strapping on a boot

so he felt he could say anything to anyone and not have to deal with the consequences, so he started to

argue with this collingwood supporter, who really gave tommy heaps, and tommy said, you are a worthless

nobody, and your team is ****, so ******* away from me, for you see i am the local bbq man, i do it every year

and i want you to treat me good, because it’s good that i do that, yeah, but the lady said, who gives a hoot

on who or what you are, you are causing me ****, ya know and i am going to bash you up, and i will, don’t you worry, hey

you see after that she left to watch the footy in the bar, to get away from tommy cause he talks ****, and this really hyped tommy up

and made him cheer loud for sydney sydney sydney oi oi oi , sydney sydney sydney oi oi oi , and this made the people behind tommy

mad and started to get rowdy, and one guy wanted to lay into tommy saying, you can’t help people, you are a lying *******

who is looking up at your dead cat, who is making you alright, and then from out of the blue, tommy’s friend from the bbq came over

to him and sat in the seat and said, tommy you deserve credit, ya know, much better seats than these, how about next year we give you

better seats, and tommy said, are you sure i deserve it, i only do the bbq, mate, and they said, **** yeah, oh **** yeah, you work very hard

every day you come, and we feel like making youn a life time member of the swans, because that is your favourite team, isn’t it

tommy was ever so happy, and jumped for ****** joy, and said, i love sydney, and i hope they win, boy would i think that is cool

you see tommy went to the toilet and came back to his seat and got a big surprise, you see suddenly all his mates from the club he did

the bbq for were there to cheer him on, one man gave him a swans clock, another gave him a few champagne flutes filled with champagne

and another gave him a million dollars, so he can travel around the world, tommy thanked them for his presents, and then went over to

the toilet block, and there was ernie pallet who had a better surprise for him, you see tommy was amazed and tommy was happy too

tommy felt like giving tommy a very big hug, you see tommy was given a very big hug, by adam goods, because of what tommy was talking about

aboriginal rights, man that sounds so right, and adam gave him $4,000,000 to put into his account for when he grew older, this will make him happier

oh yeah, mate ****** yeah, so at the end of the game sydney won and all tommy’s friends amazingly disappeared along with all the gifts, which made

tommy look up and look down, and everywhere around but no gifts in sight, and another thing, it wasn’t the grand final, either it was round ****** 12

and he was at the game between sydney and collingwood missing an all important bbq, and instead of saying he is good, they lefty awful curse words

on his mobile phone, saying he let them down, what a ****** of an imagination i have

Where are we, Kaya?  
                               

Landscapes pock like amanita muscaria, fly agaria
the long-legged mushrooms, scarlet
and foot-cloven
and languages rage and quicken like seeds

Seated at the empty table
bloated from unrequited intentions
we refrain from embrasures

Your Garingau voice &  throaty laugh
ripple over our eyes
Ha liya youn dabib?
You ask: Where
are we
going?

from here, with Lighthouse Caye in sight
on this sea of blighted corals beyond Seine Bight

where you were born as a footling--
inked though it became-- sole dark, Soul bright
emerging from the long dive
talismans training in your toothless mouth
foretelling the deeper plunges

off Billy Hawk Caye at Solstice
soulfully spearing our Sole--food without strife

And there is richer fare
where
we
are
going
into the night Kaya.

~ Lin Ostler
December 23. 2011
all rights reserved

September 30, 1995:

My name is Ni Young Yoon,
        Nye Yun Yun,
        Nai Yung Youn,
        Nhi Yon Yün,
        Ni Young Yoon,
I can only spell it out phonetically.
        Ni Young Yoon,
the three syllables float in my mouth
like the gibberish of a baby, bubbling out sounds,
resembling a language I never spoke, but taste on my tongue,
babbling to a mother I’d never know, but see in the mirror.

My name was Ni Young Yoon.


January 23, 1996:

My name is Natalie Rose Sereda,
Natalie, my dad’s favorite actress,
Natalie, my mom’s favorite singer,
Nata, my grandpa’s twenty-year-old nickname,
Nat!, my younger brother’s call from downstairs,
Neeeatalie, my older sister’s Chicago accent,
My name is Natalie Rose Sereda,
words tucked into the bed of my tongue
fast asleep under the roof of my mouth,
a baby wakes up after a long flight over,
she is greeted at the gate, named in the airport,
and in this moment, in the arms of her parents, she is born.

My name is Natalie Rose Sereda.

The melody spills from my lips
As I sing these words
My voice goes low
My voice goes high
These words will touch the sky
Rush through valleys
Dip to the plates of the earth
Then swirl through the skies
To the heavens
I sing from my soul
I sing from my heart
These words slowly crumble me apart
My feelings rest behind
Each syllable
My eyes well with tears
As I sing these words
That I write here
soft in her beauty ,
She closed her eyes
Rich with her youn adolescent purity
She was in desguise
She hide her true nature behind a mask
The only thing she had
Was a memory of the past
The words mean nothing to the people that hear
But those words
Hold my pain and my fear
And even as I lower
The microphone
I knew that I was going home
With sadness in my heart
Because they never understood
The words that I sang

Be you with me,
And I'm just frustrated
Don't mind me,
And youn dont,
Because I give my all
And it's actually what u needed.

Lost in the entrapment,
A small amount of your waters...
A sip and for the thirst
Of the Ded, truth in pieces
Float in an ocean of lies.

Masks you wear
Are all the faces that made
You hide away.
They may hate you in reflection,
But don't let that be what you
See or feel everyday.

Behind the mask
Is a cage,
Only the real can set it free.

Mask off
And all I know Is real,
I have no friends.

There was a youn lady called Pru
Who declared she had nothing to do

So she set about putting it right
And got into a bit of a fight

You see she wanted to make it clear
That she had nothing to hide and nothing to fear

She was incredibly rude and loud
What she said hung in the air like a heavy cloud

She wanted to set up a stall, selling buttons to one and all
She seemed to have found her call

But she said to a woman who purchased six small ducks
That the woman was bang out of luck

For small was not her size
From her hips to her big blue eyes

She continued with her speech
That made it clear, small was out of the woman's  reach

The woman began to cry
Pru began to sigh

People began to gather
Everyone got in a bit of a lather

A gentleman happened by
And asked Pru why?

Why did she feel the need, to put the woman down?
Pru began to consider and began to frown

That was not her intention, she was misunderstood
She had just meant that small was no good for the woman's hood

Pru and the woman shook hands
The council provided a band

Someone brought scones and jam for afternoon tea
And everyone sat down to eat at about half past three

Now Pru and the woman are friends
And this short story is soon to end

But first I just wanted to say
Thanks for reading, have a good day

and at every turning -
                                    it's an "ethno-centric"
conundrum -
   either random outbursts
of the modern tongue,
    that can't be said:
is repressed -
   indeed kept intact -
      and yes, sometimes merely
hidden, until
it self-demands a presence -
and those: are the sweetest
moments i can ever and never
will forget to fathom:
that seemingly long lost essence
of what i am grounded in -
and fervently explore
           in the tongue of acquisition,
that i can confuse
          an english psychiatrist
whether to think me
a schizophrenic, or merely bilingual;
so lets not kneel before
the altar of stigmata & taboo,
but therein is the common fear,
and how it feeds and
encourages a respect through
that same commodity,
                      of being common.
thus having relinquished one's
state of infantile pressures of language -
you can move toward the beyond...
indeed, i have nostalgia
not so much for a country,
  but for a childhood -
upon several return visists
   i find the land and town of origin
unrecognißable!
why? the child i was and remember
isn't there!
  the metallurgy factory that
employed 15,000+ men shut down,
and thus the bright itching dodo:
a town of pensioners,
   old communist and deßerters...
i pledge no allegiance to either flag
or land or a former ****...
   but language?
                     well, i can allow its
spontaneous emergence
   as it sways me in this appropriated
tongue...
    but let's be frank,
   certain prejudices can be translated,
all to well, in england,
  as too in scootland -
                 i didn't spend 3 years
among the picts for no ****** reason,
ah you see,
     if the americans have a derogatory
term for this western slavic
group i am and i'm not part of -
            thank you very much for
the supposed "derogatory" term
****** - you said beautifully in my
mothers room, thank you once again
for not confusing with poles and
mahogany polish - thank youn paul;
but you want to know a secret?
   what do you think the polacks
call germans?
                no clue?
              schwaby / szwaby / swabians -
                                                 shvaby...
polak, polski, po polsku, po ludzku
(a pole, pauleesh, in pauleesh, in **** lingua).

Youn are the gentle wind of spring
Whispering softly in my ear
Saying words that flow with beauty
From you always hear.
When fluffy grey recedes
The regal Sun prevails
I feel the stinging warmth
Your touches once induced
My uninspired rose
The fatuous bees ignored
Among taller stalks
with luscious buds
That maggots, rot to the core.
You are the rain that pelts down tenderly
On the barrenness of my life
This my elixir sustained by
Clouds of thoughts so rife.