Speaking of Words

I spent five days last week studying accents
Learning phonetics, syllables and vowels
Putting them together in ways foreign to my tongue
My mind, my way of thinking, my being

At days' end I was the same person
With different placements of the tongue
Taking the words and twisting them
Into strange representations

They meant the same, still
They seemed different in the speaking
As they eased their way into consciousness
Beautiful and vibrant in their foreignness

Copyright 2006 E. Bond Francisco