it's dusk. Talkie is speaking her one end of the day sound. Emrie, when here late, into darkness last night, stopped everything and was alert, ears pricked, to that sound, the single sound that Talkie speaks at dusk. Emrie repeated it. Perfectly. Listened. Repeated. Listened. Repeated. Her eyes were wide with the exchange that had to do with heart. Hers, a chicken's. Language.
I fill two plastic pitchers with beet pulp. Dry shredded beets. Winter supliment for Goats. Fill them when the doe Goats aren't around and at different times of day, put them in 2 feeding tubs. Then call them. Loud. Yelling....GOATS! COME COME. they hear, from wherever they are on 6 acres and come flying fast. The language shared between us is just two words...Come Come.
Emrie isn't much of one to repeat words you want her to. She just won't. A lot of her language is "Uh" and pointing and eyebrows raised, or brows squenched, or big smile, hands extended with fingers wiggling. She recently has added Yeah. for affirmative. No is still a shaken head. We try to get her to say milk. she won't. Juice. Juice is anything in the bottle. I can say...do you want your milk till i'm blue in the face and she will cheerfully nod and say Juice! I am Mom. Alyssia is Mom Mom. Her brother Julian is Jshzuju. I refer to Tay as Dog. a few days ago she began calling Tay , Tay. Clearly. Tay. I say, Tay Dog, she says...Tay. She understands very complex sentences. like...you need to put the lantern lights back now because i told you to be careful and you are not being careful. She frowns but puts them back.
yesterday when we were at B, working on the Compost and then coming back up, she pointed to the hammock and said Uh...
i sat and pulled her up next to me. She hasn't liked the hammock all summer. She sat yesterday, her eyebrows up, rocking and said rocky baby. She leaned back down into the spread of the hammock and looked up, let out a gasp....a gasp...and began singing. Singing as she looked up into the tree branches and the sky. She sang. Sounds. Sounds.
Sounds. with a lilting tune.
What is language? Language of tree branches, sky, Earth with all it's relations...looking for language
