25/30 Babble

The evolution of her speech

From squeal to syllable

da da da da da

First monotone

Now with cadence

First random

Now on command

One consonant to two

Soon, fine motor dexterity

Spawns more diverse sounds

In this stage of development

Than she will use as an adult.

Her mind is linguistically open

Any day now this will end

My child will begin to cull her speech

Forgo clucks and umlauts of other tongues

Keep only those she hears

The tones and accents that daily assault her ears

I will teach her this

My words and inflection teaching right from wrong

Our way from the other

She will grow and travel

They will hear my voice in hers

They will know where she comes from

And when they do

I only hope my child is proud.