Marc Swan, 2/25/2013

Current Occupation: Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor

Former Occupation: Free-lance writer

Contact Information: Marc Swan lives in Portland, Maine, a working seaport with a thriving arts community. He has new work coming out in Slipstream, Common Ground, Pearl and Owen Wister Review, WORK Literary Magazine, among others. Simple Distraction, a collection of his poems from 1989 to 2009, was published in fall 2009 by tall-lighthouse in London, England.

 

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Linguistics

A middle-aged man in a navy blue three-piece suit
A middle-aged man with a briefcase and a wide smile
A middle-aged man wearing a pressed white shirt and lavender tie
A middle-aged man with an advanced degree in electronic engineering

The middle-aged man is from a land where English is not the first language

This impeccably dressed man tells me in somewhat limited English
I hear people say
             He has bad English
                    he must not be educated

I then speak with a much younger man in blue jeans, flannel shirt,
burgundy watch cap who has brought very good food

The much younger man who owns the only Iraqi bakery in all of Maine
——speaks very little English

The much younger man tells me he goes to adult school two times a week
The much younger man tells me the system will not allow him more
The much younger man says he tries very hard to learn English

This much younger man who owns the only Iraqi bakery in all of Maine
——was told by his teacher
————that he has no business acumen

——I like the fact that he says acumen

A very strong word for any limited English-speaking man
——or woman
————to say

A very good word to use in this prickly situation where based
——on the language spoken

————not being English

——one may be considered
————stupid
————-——dumb
——————ignorant   or at best

——very limited in the English-speaking world