I saw him last week
in his baseball cap and dungarees,
sitting on his Jeep.
He had just come back from Hungary.
It was quite a bit
since we'd talked, and I was eager
to know if his trips
in Europe made him any bigger.
"Well, I learned," he said,
"that some women call poison a gift,
regard pain as bread.
In some places to make love is 'theft,'
'kneading dough' in Dutch,
in Greece 'like riding a horse,' in Spain
cogere (to catch),
scopare (to sweep) -- that's Milan --
Germans 'roll around,'
the Russians 'have contempt for someone,'
the old up-and-down,
the French 'jump.' Ah! Linguistics -- such fun!"
--Duane Vorhees
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