Learning English

            HEALTH

            (perfectly clean)
              We have read ^1. that the police ^14. are paid ^10. by the city^23. to protect its people ^13.
and their property ^8. from wrong doers ^18..  Firemen^2. are paid^3. by the city to protect the
people^5. and their property from fire^7..  The police^14. belong ^19. to the Police ^14. Department
and the firemen^2. belong to the Fire Department^26..  We have now ^11. to read about the
Health Department^6..
             Every city has its Health Department^4., just as it has its Police^14. and Fire
Departments ^26..  Members of the Department of Health are called health officers^24..  It is
their duty to protect the ^25.people of the city from sickness.  They^4. must see that all^17.
people who have contagious ^15. diseases^20. are quarantined^9., so that other people may
not get the disease^27..  They^4. must see that the people have pure water ^16., pure milk^21.,
and pure food^22..  They^4. must do everything they can to keep^28. the people healthy^12..

8.smallpox 
9.tuberculosis 
10.prevents
11.typhoid
12.serious
13.records 
14.parents 

15.registered
16.certificate
17.established
18.contracted
19.compels
20.physician
21.germs

            (affordable choice)
          This hospital is established by the city for the use of the people.  If a person who
has a contagious disease stays at home, everyone in the family must remain at home
until the sick person has recovered.  It is much better to send sick people to a hospital
where they will get the very best of care.  The others of the family may go to their work. 
The nurses and the doctors are paid by the city.  Poor people are not obliged to pay for
their treatment at the hospital; but if they can afford to pay, they may do so.

           READING LESSON FOR FOUR PUPILS
(Three pupils to read; one to perform the action.)

It may snow to-morrow.  It might be lonelier.
I may return to Europe next month.  It makes no difference abroad.
We may have to look for other work next week. 
I may not be able to come to school Friday night.  We may work overtime.
We may grow accustomed to the dark.
Our church may have a fair that night.  Our share of night to bear.
I may come home late to-night.  I was the slightest in the house.
This rain may continue for three days.  This dirty little heart.
We may expect warm days in March.  We dream--it is good we are dreaming.
Tony may have to go to the doctor to see about his hand.  To my quick ear the leaves.
The doctor may have to cut off two fingers.  Dying at my music.
He may be sick for two or three weeks.  He forgot and I remembered.
Mr. Brown said that he may have to walk home from work to-day.  He strained my faith.
Unless we get work soon our children may starve.
He seems to think that he may be elected.  Somewhat to hope for.
We may have half a day off on Election Day.  Taken from men this morning.
The European war may last three years.  To you, a nearness sundered.
The United States may have more trade.  Over and over, like a tune.

            (from the blank)
I ____ like to return to my fatherland. 
I ____not like to return to my fatherland.
I ___ go to church every Sunday, but I cannot always do so.
You ___ own your own house.  You ___ not pay rent.
Your wife ___ have a new dress for Easter if you can afford to buy one for her.
Children ___ be seen and not heard.
Every man who cannot speak English ___ attend night school.  He ___ learn English.
___ women vote?  They say that they ___ vote.
___ we allow women to vote?  I think that we ___.
I ___ like to buy a farm.  ___ you?
I ___ quit work if I were you.
Why ___ you not get an automobile if you want one?

            (Near)                        
a gold ring. a large school.  the Land of the Free.  the month of November.  lead pipes.
a school.  an English book.  a cold day.  woolen gloves.  the car we take.

            (Not near)
a phonograph.  a telegraph wire.  eightpenny nails.  sewing machine.  the Japanese.  a
telephone.  a neighbor of yours.  double glass windows.  Boston.  the Jewish language.
a great deal of noise.  people so poor that they must get help from the city.

            I WAS SO HAPPY TO FORGET

Mrs. Smith, the hospital will send an ambulance right away.  It will be here in an hour. 
Have Anna all ready to go.  Wrap her up warm.  You need not send anything with her.
The hospital will give her everything that she will need.  As soon as she has gone,
telephone the Department of Health to send an inspector to fumigate the house. 
Good-by.

Mrs. Smith expresses sunshine but is not quickened to perceive
the proverb of the instance of the swimmer singing,
“I used to be under water, but now I am not.”
A flood--a sentence foolishly stupid--a present she was not quickened to perceive.
Sunshine so wonderful and hatched is good to hide from
or tear into sprinkly ashes that harm cannot annul.
Nature, on the other hand, is fond, for such silence
She is quick to perceive and, like a giant dog, paddle away.

            AT THE TELEPHONE

John.  The telephone bell is ringing, Mother.  Shall I answer it?
Hello, yes, this is 484.  Yes, this is Mr. Smith’s house.  Yes, there is a case of
diphtheria here.  All right, Doctor.  Good-by.

John.  Here is the ambulance, Mother.  The doctor is coming in. 
The Ambulance Driver.  Good morning.  Does Mrs. Smith live here?
Mrs. Smith.  Yes.  Are you coming for Anna?  She is all ready for you.  Here she is.
The Ambulance Driver.  Come, my dear, let me carry you.  What a big girl you are!  You
do not look sick.  You will be better in a few days.  Say  good-by to Mother.  Tell her
that you will be home again in a few days.

            THE END OF THE DAY

            Mary and Anna sleep together in one bed.  Their bed and a dresser are in their
bedroom.  The bed stands by the wall and the dresser is near the foot of the bed. 
Everything stands on the concrete floor.  There is a drain underneath the bed.
The bed is made of iron so it may be sterilized.  It is covered with bedclothes. 
The bedclothes are the blanket, the quilt, and the sheets.  The blanket is thicker than
the sheets or the quilt.  It is made of wool.  The quilt is thicker than the sheets.  The
sheets are made of thin cotton cloth.  These bedclothes keep Mary and Anna warm. 
The blanket is used only in winter when the room is cold.  In the summer all the
bedclothes are folded and placed in the bottom of the dresser at the foot of the bed. 

sleep            quilt               pillows                    I years had been resting            mirror
dresser         sheets            feathers                 comb                                
bedclothes    thicker          the world stands aback                     mattress         hairbrush       
blanket         let me not mar that slow route       cotton                                      drawers         
now I knew I lost her         ceiling                        

            Anna is hot.  Anna is cold.  Mr. Smith slips into the room.  What is he doing? 
He’s sucking a tube to draw out the diptherian matter in his child’s throat.
            Anna is hot.  Anna is cold.  There are two Mr. Smiths.  There are two Marys. 
There are two dressers at the foot of the bed.
            Anna is hot.  Anna is cold.  Something sits in her throat and in her chest:
A trunkful of laughter stored safe from her slurry barking.

As hunger roars incandescent from turning for a larger view,
I leave you and strike out for territory unknown.

Wind hard all day
Wind hard all day
Wind violent all day

While my daughter sleeps I grapple to purchase an acre--for what
had seemed a flatness was now transformed into motion.  Outside a
sharpening ocean.  Inside, a plain.  The body no longer visionary
but consumed by weight and effort.  Till in ignorant sowing.  Waste.

It seems long ago when I attempted to relay your attention,
to seek deliverence in hand and sign and tongue.
I did once believe the faythful saynge of the crede chaseth away
fendes, but here they come-- 
run, fiend run--a  sign that of this world there is no freedom,
or else surely one of those heads in its palpable spin would
reverse tidal direction and lay in wayte to prevent my devisses.
Instead, a powerful nod in the right direction and

a harrow blur sound a-skie
figured forth a soul
now the fiend ariding
shedding hair and clothes
shrieks to go awreaking
‘pon my skittish door

Lord, where once I bit, now toothless lick
and stand here a poore woman in vile raiment with no means to
            procure the comforts of life.
Deficient of mental and moral compass and wanting this could
            incite your compassion.
Would that it might be enough to separate body from soul.

In an earlier day, poetic and humorous, we laughed in heaven,
you, ruler and dominant influence over my astrology--
an excitable temperament but loyal--
which became my official dignity--a suitor of rank,
who once did swim in your esteem.

Furnish me now with what is serviceable
in my efforts and needs--action
for further purpose of succour
and put forth effort, even if it be quasi-impersonal--

Then shall my singing soull reioyce, And flee aboue the skie
from sound post to sound post and pfffft into candle’s light.

Elizabeth Cross has been published in Chain, Chicago Review, Denver Quarterly, and P-Queue. She has won awards from the Michigan Council for the Arts Grant, Academy of American Poetry, Rocky Mountain Women's Institute, Cranbrook Writers' Conference.

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