between parole, the faculty of language,

and langue, its conceptual existence.

English only pretends to.

We have separate words,

speech and language,

but lazily we lump them together,

call them synonyms. Interchangeable.

In France, Canada, Senegal, Haiti,

our concept of language

is unattainable.

Chomsky and all his friends agree,

inventing two languages,

I and E. You can only have I,

and many debates will heat up

over whether E even exists.

They cut out our tongues

and we lost our writing, too. 

They have robbed you of your speech.

They have placed the toughest P.O.

on your parole. You can only have I,

and it is specific to you.

Your tone, your style, these too are gone

with the lost your most immediate capacity.

The French draw a distinction.

Analysts will call them more precise.

Perhaps they only know the value of a voice.

[1] A misquote of a misquote of a book I’ve never read.