THE OTHER WALL
C Ra McGuirt
there are 2.5 billion women in the world,
but many of them speak Chinese
or some other language
that i don’t.
this narrows down the field
to those with whom i can
converse in English,
but even most of them
speak Woman,
& i don’t,
at least not fluently.
for instance, take the common phrase
“i love you”. depending on the circumstance
& the intonation, i understand that it can mean:
“i like your personality. i want to be your friend”,
or
“i like your personality,&i like your body.
i want to be your lover&your friend”,
or
“i like your personality better than your body,
but i’ll be your lover so i can be your friend”,
or
“i like your body better than your personality,
but i’ll try to be your friend so i can be your lover”,
or
“i don’t like myself, so i can’t be your friend.
why don’t i just pretend to be? at least i’ll be your lover”,
or
“i hate myself,&i hate you too, because you don’t hate me,
&i’m going to slice your testicles off
with a pair of rusty hedgeclippers.”
maybe i should learn Chinese...
how hard could it be?
