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Inching towards speech

They're setting up the seating and
somewhere down there the chef's shouting
a missing fish order, the notes
are re-checked

my son, eighteen months
is learning to make words
he say soo for shoe, uss and nooo
we're building a language
I encourage him
shoe, I say, shoe

brexit, she says, brexit
checking the notes
checking them again
(the fish order's
turned up and the chef is now
stressing over 300
ravioli of oxtail)

up, says my son
holding his arms out
pleased when I pick him up
he immediately wants to get down
and walks off, satisfied

slowly, language coheres
it swims into focus
at least, that's the theory
eventually my son will say
justified, carbuncle, dichotomy

brexit, she says, means
(downstairs there's a howl, as forty litres of bisque
are ruined by too much salt)

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