Happy May the Fourth! I’ll be reading this at the Carrboro (NC) Poet’s Open Mic Night tonight via Zoom which starts at 7pm EDT (2300UTC) and usually lasts about an hour. Connect up and share your poetry too!

So long since I last heard our songs

I miss the sounds of my language
the beckoning song of a silken woman
the yips of children playing in the trees
even Malla’s nagging would be welcome

Recordings and transmissions from home
can’t convey the breadth of tone
or inflection we use everyday
from bowcaster ads to poetry

I love my friends though pale and sickly
they appear but I speak like a simpleton
so they can understand— the subtleties
of Shyriiwook are lost on fur-less ears

Take me back to Kashyyyk— I want to hear
my wife say my name— my true name— once again