The Pookering Cosh

Poetry Original Works - Post Your Poems
1

The Pookering Cosh

The pookering cosh that pens the drom,
the talking stick which writes the road.
In plain English, a signpost.

Words from an older language,
with its roots in Sanskrit, from India.
Five hundred years has changed them,
into a half language, Pogadijib,
which translates as Broken Tongue.

I can say Conya and Nupe in a pub
and no-one will recognise them,
except the hawk-nosed and dark-eyed
descendants of the early Romanichals.

If they tell me to Jal, go, it’s time to leave,
or roll up my sleeves and fight.
It rather depends on if we were smiling
when we spoke the old tongue.

If they call me a dinnilo I’ll smile,
knowing I’m not an idiot.
But wafferdi minge is long past smiling,
too late to leave with honour intact.

Gyppo

1 Like
2

Very creative write Gyppo, one every liguist should have this framed on a wall. Well done.

I used to work with a guy from Argentina and they had a word “baludo” which translates to big balls. When used between friends it’s a term of endearment but if you say it to a stranger its considered an insult.

3

Cheers, Tom,

Language is a slippery beast, and sometimes it’s fun to wrestle with different aspects of it. Spoken language is even more tangled because of the way tone or presentation can change the meaning.