Articulatory Phonetics

My cousin a high
school English teacher in
Tennessee said they
got nearly an inch
of snow tonight so
school has been
cancelled for tomorrow.  She
said besides the
usual stuff she teaches her
drooling with excitement
students about
linguistics a field I
love
and that just that
little bit of
extracurricular oomph
catapults them forward
magically
better readers.
Mystery remains unsolved.
Outside here where I
live it's been snowing
non-stop for about three
years but school is
not cancelled.  Houses
are just bumps under
white.  Everyone goes in
and out through
the chimney.  Three-fourths
of a Tennessee inch
with a polynomial of exponential
proportions.  In graduate
school my advisor
a gray haired
unkempt woman
eyes wild
hands gesturing
mouth open
taught Articulatory Phonetics
descriptions of action and noise
teeth tongue palate
clicks clacks tones glottal stops
aspirated p non-aspirated k
sounds exploding out of her
mouth and face.
Sometimes I thought she looked
a little like a frog.