Pancho

tongue tied i tried

to tell you everything

i tried to present this

clever image of myself

but it came out

a threadbare pancho

of self-deprecation

and strained humour

i catalogued my many quirks

unveiled a couple of minor hurts

explained with example

some bad to worse

maybe i said too much

maybe i didn’t say enough

that’s a measure i’m not sure

that i can quantify

but it was so good to talk

broken language and all

it was so good just to listen

and to hear

a series of small moments

joined together

by the soft murmur

of spilled chatter