Fun In Its Wanderings Poem by Margaret Alice Second

Back to basics counting in French, listening
to recordings of voices counting me to death,
dug up a 5th edition of Basic Conversational
French, p 66, Cardinal numbers, looked at the
keys - 11 to 16 with ZE - onze douze treize
30 to 60 with TE - trente quarante cinquante

70 is sixty-ten = soixante-dix,80 is 4 times 20
= quatre-vingts,90 is 4 times 20 plus ten =
quatre-vingt-dix - just seeing this gives me the
shivers, reading aloud to get used to the sound
is awful, a freshman at university sitting with
my book repeating this endlessly to do Dictée

Today the object is teaching diplomatic staff
to get around in France but I'm not going any-
where, learning this only serves to pass the
time, I'm better off reading Mars and Venus
by John Gray explaining why men and women
can't get along, explaining the idea of martyrs

I'm a martyr to my cause of peace in the home,
now it seems I have sold my soul - with that
blasted soul gone I have nothing with which
to go on, no wonder I feel so down, being
only a shell of my former self - I hope
my soul has fun in its wanderings

I seem to have none, repeating the same
lessons without a chance of ever using
these skills…


4 October 2012

Basic Conversational French,5th edition,
Harris & Lévêque, p 66