Jason's Haitian-Creole Lesson | Michelle McEwen

First published in The Caribbean Writer, 2009

Jason's Haitian-Creole Lesson

Coucoune—

you taught me that word,

said it with lips pouted

and pink: shoon-shoon.

You grew up with this word,

preferred it to the American

equivalent which was, to you,

too harsh and hard

on the ears— with its p, u,

double esses, and y.

You could only spell it—

refused to say it.  Said my word

did nothing at all for the

mouth.  Take coucoune—

a blossoming

of lips.

A bursting!

A ripening!

And I agreed— for upon hearing

your word for the first time,

I took it for a fruit

and this made you smile.