Deer in the Headlights

"YOU AMERICAN?" the MC asked me in front of a room full of celebrating Christmas diners. I stood there like a deer in the headlights waiting for the next move. Immersed in Deaf culture for the first time, I vaguely understood the question.

My first semester ASL instructor scurried up to the front to save me. They chatted. There was a signed explanation to the audience, then applause as my mind played catch-up in the event swirling around me. I was a beginner, just learning sign language, here to support the community. Or something like that.

I made my way back to my seat as my dinner partner smiled -- acknowledging my return to more familiar ground. I looked in the envelope with the door prize I had been given and glanced quickly at the pizza coupon inside. "Oh, it's Canadian", I thought to myself, still pondering the earlier query about my cultural affiliation.

Now Hear This!

An old friend invites me for coffee and offers a buffet of half-finished sentences, sound bytes on a roll, and transitions to somewhere. There is a slight pause as he begins the one story I manage to hear well enough to piece together. Regan tells me that  conversations at home are often difficult, so he recently encouraged his wife to schedule herself a hearing test. The test came back normal, he says. He just mumbles.

Rule #4

My house, my rules.

Rule #3

There are no rules.

Double ( - Cross - ) Talk

I wonder
                  why
                           we feed ourselves lines --

                                                              reason
                                                                  crossing
                                                                        over
                                                                           desire
        
                                                                                       j  u s t  
                                                                                              i f y i n g

                                                                                                          the 
                                                                                                              double-cross.

Romancing the Wild

Home is where we remember the call back to wild being through the winds of time.

  ~~ Homage à trois

Reverse Mantra

"I am sick, always already sick."

  ~~ Mark Taylor