Day 22 #NaPoWriMo



Our (optional) prompt for the day asks you to engage with different languages and cultures through the lens of proverbs and idiomatic phrases. Many different cultures have proverbs or phrases that have largely the same meaning, but are expressed in different ways. For example, in English we say “his bark is worse than his bite,” but the same idea in Spanish would be stated as “the lion isn’t as fierce as his painting.” Today, I’d like to challenge you to find an idiomatic phrase from a different language or culture, and use it as the jumping-off point for your poem.

The idiom: Sauter du coq à l’âne.
Literal translation: “To jump from the cock to the donkey.”
What it means: “It means to keep changing topics without logic in a conversation.”

How we talked

22 April 20

0849

Jump from the cock to the donkey

That’s what she used to say in her broken French

Trying to confuse me

While we argued over the benefits of tea versus coffee for diabetics

But we never got past the post modernist movement in oil painting

We decided to call it a draw

Since we knew none of the past three champions in the world cup

And now we politely ignore each other as she watches MSNBC and I read back issues of The Paris Review hoping to learn enough culture to counter her photographic memory of Rachel Maddow’s predilection of mugs

After an hour or so

We will continue our half of the conversation that occurred in each of our marriage counselors offices

Since we don’t live in the same timezone and we dont have iPhones to do facetime with

As we lay down to sleep

She prepares tomorrows coffee and I clear the DVR of shows i thought she watched last year

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