Deaf Kids At Dunn Brothers Coffee Shop, St. Paul

DEAF KIDS AT DUNN BROTHERS COFFEE SHOP, ST. PAUL**

I was sitting there drinking coffee
when two boys sat down
by themselves
like twins
and then they talked

and everyone looked
everyone watched them talk
their hands were grabbing the earth
and the sky
and holding them
like a tongue holds a first kiss
but they were more like water
than anything else

there was such life here
I thought of my boys
so far away
I think of all the times
I didn't hear them
and how my hands
when they touch them--
rub their heads or pat their backs--
can never say enough

then their mother was there
and the whole time she talked
with her hands
she looked at them smiling
and I thought how beautiful
to be able to do that

and what would it be like
to watch your mother
talking to you
and the whole time
she's beaming at you
brighter than a bulb
there he was staring at her
wondrous
and I saw
the force that
fifteen billion years ago
gave birth to a universe
it made me shudder

everyone looked
because the moment was crystal
the air around them was diamond
it was like seeing a waterfall
for the first time
the fibrous sunset over ocean
the April ice on Lake Superior
their hands were a wonder
of nature their smiles
sitting there sipping coke
the thick tongue of their fingers
gesturing their pleasure

what lovers they will be
unable to whisper but
how they will talk


how they will
talk


Richard Smyth

Posted over on Anabiosis Press