Teaching My Mother English over the Phone

I try to explain the difference between pant & pants
why the former isn’t simply one pair

but what the lungs do with fear or excitement
why clothe isn’t a singular noun

but what most do to the body each morning
she calls on a Wednesday needs help

with an assignment for her third English
beginners course where she meets twice a week

her classmates from countries with names beautiful as hers
I try to make the language clear to my mother

as she one day —before my English took hold—
explained to me that I did not in fact make friends

with a girl named Sorry:

but we were on the playground and she hit me, fue accidenté,
y me dijo “I’m sorry” & when someone says I am, yo soy—

that’s not how this works I remind her

when she asks if the plural of dust is dusts
she asks me to conjugate love

I love you love he loves she loved
we loved you have loved I am loving

she wants to know how a word can be both
a thing and an action like war & mistake

although I can’t put into words in Spanish
how I know the difference so I tell her I have to go

and I go & she goes & I haven’t taught her anything

Amezcua, Eloisa. From the Inside Quietly. Sundress Publications, 2018