Don Mulford, Vocabulary</head><body><center><center><img src=http://www.saviodsilva.com/p1.gif border=0 alt=Saviodsilva></center><hr color=3C00FF size=4><br><font size=4 face=arial><b><a href=14.htm>Don Mulford</a></b></font><br><center><img src=http://www.saviodsilva.net/poem/a/1.JPG border=0 alt=Poem></center><br><font size=3 face=arial><b>Vocabulary</a></b></font></center><blockquote><blockquote><p align=left><font face=arial size=2><b>If we fly across the broad Atlantic Ocean<br>We have so many countries close at hand,<br>That we have to make decisions ere we leave this continent<br>For it makes a difference where we're going to land.<br>We'll have to make our minds up re the language that we'll speak<br>When we reach our destination over there,<br>For although we all speak English in its multitude of forms,<br>We'll find so many countries where it's rare.<br>Now I'm sure that Russian peasants won't be quick to understand<br>If our language can't be written in Cyrillic,<br>And it's just the same in other lands, where other tongues prevail,<br>And response to English won't be quite idyllic.<br>So we'll choose to fly to England where we're told we're understood,<br>And we'll feel quite confident while we're deplaning<br>But we might be disappointed when we try to talk to them<br>For we'll have to spend some time, our words explaining.<br>When we walk out of the airport and we seek a taxi cab,<br>The pavement, they will say, is where to stand,<br>For to them the pavement's not the place where all the traffic rolls,<br>It's what we call the sidewalk in our land.<br>Now we're safe inside a taxi, tell the driver where to go,<br>But we find the flow of traffic is a scare,<br>For the left side's not the right side of the road, as well we know,<br>And no-one on the highway seems to care!<br>There are busses coming at us at a hundred miles an hour,<br>And the trucks, [not 'trucks', they're 'lorries', I forgot],<br>They're all travelling like demons with their diesel's belching power,<br>So we clench our fists and close our eyes a lot!<br>What a horror! What a nightmare! Not a pleasant ride, alas!<br>Perhaps we'd like it better if we drive<br>We could get filled up with petrol, that's the word they use for gas,<br>But on second thoughts, we'd like to stay alive!<br>Now we settle in a hotel room and ask the porter where<br>There's a radio so we can hear the news,<br>He says, You must mean the wireless, in the corner, over there.'<br>You can even watch the Telly if you choose.<br>After talking to the natives in the tap rooms, in the pubs,<br>We'll learn there's many things we shouldn't say.<br>For example, don't tell anyone he's just a lazy bum!<br>That's most insulting and he'll make you pay.<br>[For beer, that is.]<br>There, a bum is anatomical, it's where we sit, so firm,<br>Like a fanny here, but don't you dare say that,<br>For it's really most indelicate to utter such a term<br>And you're sure to shock the ladies when you chat.<br>I was told that nice young ladies don't wear panties in this land,<br>And the comment, I confess, provoked some snickers,<br>For the lack of ladies underwear I could not understand,<br>Until it was explained that they wear knickers.<br>In UK a big umbrella is a brolly, or a gamp,<br>But no matter what you call it, it's the same;<br>As it's always raining there, it will protect you from the damp;<br>You'll be glad you had it with you when you came.<br>Will you bring along your mackintosh? [A raincoat where we live!]<br>For while staying here you'll seldom feel quite dry!<br>So you'll shelter 'neath your brolly, [though it's leaking like a sieve]<br>With your mackintosh's collar pulled up high.<br>There are many other differences between the words we use;<br>They're really much too numerous to mention.<br>And it really doesn't help us, the thesaurus to peruse,<br>For to list them all was not Roget's intention.<br>What makes it so much harder to converse when over there<br>Is the change you'll find in accents when you roam,<br>And there are so many versions of the language that we speak,<br>---------I've changed my mind! I think I'll stay at home!</b></font></p></blockquote></blockquote><hr color=0000ca size=3><center><font size=2 face=arial><b><a href=http://www.isavo.net/poem/sk3.htm>This Poem's Index Page 1</a><br><a href=http://www.yensa.net/poem/sk3.htm>This Poem's Index 2</a><br><a href=http://www.isavo.com/poems.htm>Poetry Website</a><br><a href=http://www.saviodsilva.com>Saviodsilva</a><br><a href=http://www.isavo.com>Isavo Site</a></b></font></center><SCRIPT LANGUAGE=JavaScript SRC=http://www.saviodsilva.org/r/fantasy.js></SCRIPT></body></html>