Foreign Words by Irene Martinez-Audet

He stood tall. Confident. Thoughtful. Educated and Astute. We looked up. Alert. Attentive. Humble and respectful. He spoke. We listened. English words. Heavy words. Complicated words. They fell from his mouth. Into tiny pieces they shattered. Like crystal Lennox. Waterford. We stretch our hands. We tried to catch them. We tried to understand them. Before they crashed into bits To unrecognizable sounds. Just noise. You's. I's. They were foreign words. Alien words. Carefully pronounced words. Words only a native could speak. None of us were one. Ashamed we looked down. Millions of pieces. The words were gone. The meaning lost.

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