Working on a Phrase

I used a foreign phrase in a poem I wrote
took it home for checking with my ma and pa

mama said you shouldn’t talk like that
it isn’t right to spread such things around
and when she told me what it meant
I said ok, I would remove it

papa took the verse aside for awhile
to study in the evening quiet
he said goodnight to all I’m going to bed
by the way son I think you can keep the phrase
croatian men talk like that a lot
I said ok, I’ll keep it in the poem
and we’ll let the skippi’s work it out
if they can

let them work it out if they can

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© Frank Prem, 2001

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