Tongue Twister - Matteo Preabianca

poem read by Timothy Arliss OBrien

Tongue Twister
Matteo Preabianca

A coin.

A young man tragically passed away.

And the Americas.

A strange man advised me to pay attention to these three things.

I knew that young man. His name was Amos.

He died at the age of 19. After he got his license, he was driving with three friends.

He passed another car... and wham! No more life.

The guy sitting next to him told us he had the steering wheel in his stomach
and his tongue was hanging out.

"Pretty wild!" everyone thought, without daring to say it out loud.

A buddy of ours played "A Tout le Monde" by Megadeth, his favorite song, at his funeral.

His mother told us to finish our homework.

She refused to acknowledge the grim reality, of course!

Fiction is way more appealing than our bodies dragging on until the illusion of a temporary end.

Do I owe you anything, Amos?

What about the coin?

The only thing I remember was when my father, before returning to Milan, gave me 10 pence.

That coin was almost burnt; I couldn't read it clearly.

He added,

"It is more useful for you than for me."
Or maybe the strange man was referring to when I was a child,
and my grandpa gave me a lot of coins
every time I visited, telling me not to say a word to my cousins.

And the Americas?

Well, I am an Italian migrant.

America, aka the United States, is part of our recent history,
and my country is on the periphery of the United States Empire.

But the strange man probably meant something else.

---

Italian-born Australian Matt Bianca, now based in Scotland, is a linguist, lecturer, and translator whose work

reflects his extensive travels across several countries. Fluent in Italian and English, he channels his dual

cultural identity into a diverse portfolio that includes published English poems, experimental music albums,

and novels.
https://thegentlelaw.substack.com/