Intensive Summer German Course

(originally published by Emrys Journal in 1997)

For weeks we weren't allowed to use the tongue

In any normal way. At night we wrung

Gutteral lieder from our throats like this:

"Fritz frßt gern Sweitzer Käs, Ohne Gebiß."

When morning came, we'd struggle with the words

As if our mouths were stuffed, and grunt toward

The nameless food—and curse the time it takes

To learn the German words for Frosted Flakes.

Our teacher then, a Prussian from Berlin,

Would torture us by drilling grammar in,

Until we ached with every word he spoke

Because, you see, in Germany, the Volk—

They learn like this. And when the day was gone

We'd sit inside and try to reach beyond

The simple words we knew; we'd sing our gust

Of songs, or talk, our mouths betraying us.

And half ourselves, and half misunderstood,

We suffered through this bad second childhood.

Wayne Coxwas born in Portland, Maine. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina and currently teaches at Anderson University, where he holds the Daniel Endowed Chair of English.  A recipient of Fulbright and NEA fellowships, his work has appeared in such places as Poetry, Shenandoah, Chelsea, and Stand. With his wife, Lourdes Manyé, he published Vacation Notebook (Lang, 1996), a translation of Quadern de Vacances, by the Catalan poet Miquel Martí i Pol.  His second book, The Things We Leave Behind (2000) was published by Ninety-Six Press.  He lives in Greenville with his wife and two daughters.