Michelle Bridges

ESL, Level 2

In a small scrappy classroom
beside a large world map
they are struggling with “th.”

Repeat:
‍ ‍This thing.
‍ ‍These three trees.

And they can’t
pronounce the past tense.
The muscles of the mouth and tongue

struggle - watched,wished,walked,worked;
the crowded final consonant clusters
just another foreign corner.

So everything is present, is doing.
There is no yesterday,
no context, no abuela or mangoes

or escape. Only now, here with this mutt
language of impossible spelling
and improbable mastery, in a land

of rumored promise where hopes dissolve
into overtime hours, car repairs,
Google translating at the dentist,

dodging certain unmarked cars.
Repeat: I watched.  I wished.  I walked. I worked.
Repeat: This thing.  These three trees.

Stick your tongue between your teeth, I say. Th.
Stick it all the way out.
Learn to bite it, just the right amount.

Michelle Bridges teaches English as a second language at Kansas City, Kansas Community College. She has an MA in Linguistics and is the author of Visual Grammar, a student-friendly guide to written sentence structure. In addition to teaching and writing, Michelle spends time watching the sun come up with her son.