KATE MEYER-CURREY
★ ★ ★ ★
POETRY
Image by Amador Loureiro
Foreign tongue
By the time I was divorced
from my German husband
I was fluent in the language
I had battled for ten years
of total immersion; I was
nearly drowned by marriage
but I had my head above
the water when conversation
flowed free and did not need
to come up for air when waves
of compound nouns rolled off
my tongue; I was not sucked
beneath the undertow of cases
or battered by the rocky reefs
of unknown verbs. Washed up
on dry land I still have my sea-
legs; I can curse like a sailor
and spout poetry like a whale.
My elliptical English is like a
merchant seaman boarded
by German pirates. Now it
takes no prisoners, fires on
command and wields a cutlass
to defend its hard-won treasure.
I have relearned the forgotten
Muttersprache of a forebear
(whose German name I use now)
with a home in every port,
swapping yarns with other
shipwrecked linguistic mariners.
Foreign Tongue
Kate Meyer-Currey lives in Devon. A varied career in frontline settings has fuelled her interest in gritty urbanism, contrasted with a rural upbringing, often with a slipstream twist. She over a hundred poems published in print and online journals and anthologies in the UK and internationally. Her poem ‘Gloves’ was in the top 100 of the UK’s Poetry for Good competition (2021) and ‘We got this’ was shortlisted for the 2021 Black in White poetry competition. ‘Boys of Vallance Road’ came third in the poetry category of the London Society’s ‘Love Letter to London’ competition (March 2022). Her poem ‘The Wild Bunch’ is also a Pushcart and Rhysling Award nominee. She has been selected to partner with Little Toller books as part of LiteratureWorks South West’s Talent Development programme. Her chapbooks County Lines (Dancing Girl) and Cuckoo’s Nest (Contraband) are due out in 2022.
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Genuine wordsmith Kate coming from all angles got to find more of your descriptive artwords!
Where was “Foreign Tongue” first published; ie I need to know whom to contact for publishing permission. Thank you.
Hey Kate would love to reconnect…been a long time! Lovely to see your poetry
Camille x