tuesday's word: tongue

andy warhol, querelle poster, 1982


tung

mobile muscular tissue, covered with mucous membrane, located in the mouth, facilitating taste, mastication, +, in humans, speech

language, speech (‘lingua,’ literally ‘tongue’)

flap of material under shoe laces

clapper; metal pendulum inside a bell that sounds by beating against the bell’s sides

‘to tongue’ = to lick or explore with the tongue

old english ‘tunge’ from proto-germanic ‘tungon’ from proto-indo-european ‘dnghwa-,’ all meaning ‘tongue, speech, language’



“just me + george + billie holiday dancing slow + close.

“i see it coming from a long way off. his head is so still, his eyes on my lips. his lips stick together as they come apart. such a slow + graceful descent, the way his lips land just right on my lips, round + firm soft too.

“whisker rub. his tongue in my mouth, a perfect french inhale. it is a kind of swoon. something in george collapses too. or we both do. who knows, at that moment, you can’t really tell us apart.

“in everything’s that light + gay, i'll always think of you that way.

“it is the longest kiss i'd ever kissed.”

--tom spanbauer, now is the hour, 2006