A School term away from home

Sheila Levy, Cambridge, UK

So shy
So lonely
So silent

All nationalities equal in first-day nerves.

"So much rain"
"So many potatoes"

Complaints come thick and fast.

"So difficult"
"So many tenses"

Harder than they thought

So keen to leave
So near the end

Returning home at last.

So far
So good
So FLUENT !

How do I know it was China

Jane Arnold, Seville, Spain

Long-tailed kites were dragging children along.
But children fly kites in Kansas.

Masses of humanity in the half-light pedaled themselves to waking work.
But so do they in Amsterdam.

Men in flat-bottomed boats slyly coaxed naive fish out of the water.
Ah, but in Iquitos it is the same.

As the turbulent city crushed young hopefuls,
old men calmly smoked horizons on the water front.
And lovely painted pagan faces danced us back red, pink and yellow centuries.
Yes, but so could this be Piraeus.
How do you know it was China?

I know because there water was stronger than rocks,
And light and dark were not opposites,
And as much was owed to gatekeepers as to sages.
That is how I know that in my dream it was China.

The third person singular

Sophie by Lina Di Ciocco

I wonder why
the pronoun she
can't be se as in he.

I wonder why
She is bound to he.
Why must she sound like he?

Why must he embodied in she,
take flight like a bird
in the world as he?

Now, why can't she
be as independent as he?

The culture of the day
dictates grammar's way.

The holistic she now functions as he,
with all the pros and cons,
irrespective of contribution,
anonymity of attribution.

No modern woman can stand to be
s stuck to he
sh as a stance
An s / with he attached

The Italians have a lei and lui,
the French an elle and lui,
the English, a chauvinistic he
possessive or progressive she?
The Greek she, afti
is Greek for ear, you see,
Sh! Listen!
Female names are a case,
the genitive of possession.
No muse dared sway

such male intention.
Language is culture,
word of a collective lot,
word of mind and heart.

Voice of progressive thought,
it's high time
linguists sought.
Swim against the tide!

Off with of!
In the name of gender,
linguists, render,
find an answer!