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