I.
There is value in the reduplication of sounds:
Dára is blood, Dáradára is covered in blood
Tápok is dust, Tápoktápok is covered in dust and
Báles is revenge, while Balembáles is mutual revenge
II.
Tone is unreliable
Ania ket is an important interjection
allowing you to sarcastically express
shock and displeasure when gossiping
or venting your frustration over someone
III.
Be precise
Aniaka metten communicates your
condemnation, disbelief, or surprise directly
to your subject, while Ania ketdín
conveys your disapproval of a situation
Ania ketdín a kinasiglátna!
Translated is How alert he is!
Meaning He escaped me!
Irene Villaseñor’s writing appears in Queer Nature: An Ecoqueer Poetry Anthology, My Phone Lies to Me: Fake News Poetry Workshops as Radical Digital Media Literacy, Nepantla: An Anthology Dedicated to Queer Poets of Color, TAYO Literary Magazine, The Santa Fe Writers Project's Quarterly Journal, and The Yellow Medicine Review: A Journal of Indigenous Literature, Art, and Thought. She’s on Twitter too @IreneSenor.