My First Hearing Aid

Must you mumble, garble
consonants, rush to the end,

drop last syllables?
Must I teach phonetics again?

Speak with precision. Like
Professor Henry Higgins,

I’m a reasonable sort of man,
bearing malice toward none,

if only diphthongs were purer,
vowels and lives did not decay.

– Kilian McDonnell

For Author's biography, please click: