British Sign
Translators can be traitors, so they say,
and passing things across from tongue to tongue,
like changing money, tends to wear away
value. But if the first-said words are strong,
they can resist distortion and degrading.
Threadbare expressions never last for long,
ladder, go into holes, or into hiding,
like weasels and their words, concealed among
the undergrowth of verbiage. But if face,
body, head, fingers, without voice, are used
to shape the meaning, raised eyebrows disgrace
clichés – then we’re less prone to be abused:
to the left of the minister there stands
someone who gives the whole truth with both hands.
Mike Rogers
If you have any thoughts about this
poem, Mike Rogers
would like to hear them
