Page 11 - Behind The Smile - Summer 2015

Flash Cards/Flash Back
by Le Hinton
Apple, book, thumb. I remember each card with three pictures. Pronounce each one, slowly, precisely. Initial consonants. Final blends.
Open vowels.
b’s, th’s, o’s. Each carefully articulated.
I learned to be quiet, I learned to write.
On our way to the clinic there was always time
for breakfast at the Cameron Street diner
or a stop for hot dogs after we arrived in Lancaster. The corner of Lime and King.
A town full of fruit and royalty.
Lemon, Lime, Orange.
Queen, King, Duke.
All streets seemingly one-way.
One way to speak.
One way to sound.
One way to turn.
This clinic in this town
with its one-way streets
and hope dressed in white,
doctors dressed in smiles.
Surgical cuts to open a future, to open a life.
Lancaster Cleft Palate Clinic ••• Behind the Smile eMagazine ••• Summer 2015 ___________________________ Page 11
You sound like toilet
paper is stuck in your nose.
I have to babysit on Saturday, so I can’t go out with you.
You’d have a good singing voice
if you were a cartoon character.
You’d never know that colored boy was smart from the way he sounds.
I’ve learned to speak out and still write.
To hold the little boy whose voice sings alone. To kiss the tiny baby whose lips still smile. Write the poetry and shout the words.
Small no more.
Now without pain.
Without bullies.
Without fear or a cleft palate.
Apple, book, thumb. I remember.