Speech Impediments Only

by Francies Stephenson

Yes, English is my first language 
I promise you I wrote all these words 
The tip of my tongue 
Just comes out a little further 
Than it should 
I’ve thought over a million times
About corrective surgery 
Just mark, slice, & stitch my tongue here 
But I don’t want to do that anymore 
For the ones with 
Lazy tongues 
Stutters 
Lisps 
Underbites and 
Overbites 
Open your mouths wider 
And vocalize those 
Dentalised, 
Lateralised, 
Palatalized, 
And nasalized sounds 
Orchestrate the World’s Greatest 
Speech Impediment Symphony 
Let’s make it fashionable 
To have difficultly pronouncing words with 
The letters 
S, T, D, Z, R, H, and B 
Let’s stop silencing our voices 
Out of fear of embarrassment
Let’s reject anyone who
Corrects our mispronunciation 
Let’s turn up on anyone who 
Mocks us 
Let’s write bestseller children stories and 
Young adult novels where
Protagonists have speech impediments 
Let’s hashtag our speech impediments 
I’ll start first #lisp202
That’s Lisp (202) for my speech impediment & my D.C. area code 
Let’s make professions out of having speech impediments 
Oooh, and it doesn’t stop there 
Let’s make an exclusive fan club and name it 
Speech Impediments Only!