Where I’m from, nothing’s nowt.
Something’s owt.
The utt in butter is pronounced
like put.
Grass and bath
are short explosions
spat out.
Long coos in boook, loook
are lazier
and nasally intoned.
Received Pronunciation,
taught me instead
to twist
my tongue into a knot
of strangled ejaculation,
a way of speaking
in an accent
that is clipped, precise,
cut-glass.
Rhymes with arse.