there are lots of words i should know that i don’t. i would like to know them. when i don’t know them, i either reel off as many translations as i can think of until one of them must be right, or i sit, mouth agape, the corners of my mouth reaching up, not enough for dimples but enough for it to be clear that i am lost enough to laugh at myself, and in my laughter i confess that i don’t know; i don’t know the words.
the words i do know fail me, they are not the right ones and they do not want to hear them.
450 words: i write them all, and another on the back. 450 words to know - these ones i mostly know, words from long ago now tattooed on my brain. they won’t go for a very long time, but they will.
