Contributor: Carl "Papa" Palmer

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She gasps, waves her hand as something
is announced on the radio, motions me
to listen as she turns up the volume.

Being in her country, not at all fluent in
her tongue, no trace of comprehension
as I stare between her and the radio dial.

Turning the sound back down, she repeats
distinctly, slowly the same words I heard,
yet still fail to understand their meaning.

She tunes to an English-speaking station,
I hear the report. Paris is under attack. Our
tears speak a language we both understand.


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Carl "Papa" Palmer of Old Mill Road in Ridgeway VA now lives in University Place WA.
He has a 2015 contest winning poem riding buses somewhere in Seattle. Carl is a Pushcart Prize and Micro Award nominee.