On this green grass
live languages graze
like stock out to pasture
on the commons.
No one owns language
so it may not be used
as a medium of exchange
to pay your tab.
But there is a wealth
most readily acknowledged
in listening to Shakespeare
and Marlowe.
No one talks like that anymore.
We have not lost it
but set it aside
for cryptic reasons.
copyright © 2023 Kenneth P. Gurney
Umflop 