For this poem, I tried my best to put in a backwards accent.

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Ring My Bell

By Jo-Ryan Salazar

Poem 3: Osaka == Kowgal.

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It's different out here. Too different.
This poor hick girl who came here
Via Osaka
Via Kobe
Via Wakayama
(Tomo don't know where't is)
Is shocked beyond her shoes.

My parents call me Ayumu.
Ayumu's my real name,
anyway.
I thought they're like gonna call me "Ayumi."
But they say that Ayumi's
This singer who was so gosh darn cute
That she made every s.o.b. smile.
(Or so they says.)
And she was born in the west,
Like me.
(Or so they says.)

Gosh darnit, I don't know if I want
be a singer.
Shucks, I sure as hell don't know what
I want to be
When I grow up.
It's too different out here, Tokyo is.
It's scary.
Osaka was nev'r like this, y'know?

(For your information, I'm referring to my old city,
Not me. I still find it annoying to be called
After my old city
By my friends in my new city.)

I'm too laid back. I take things easy.

You might think I'm fit for living in this place
In the United States them s.o.b.'s call
The "Bible Belt."
I don' even know what the hell a Bible is.
But I heard it's pretty interesting to read,
About some guy who gets nailed
To a piece of wood
In front of these people called "Joos."
What are "Joos?"
Shoots, whoever that person was,
I'm sure he wasn't enjoying being nailed to a cheap piece wood,
That's fer sure.
But I would like to know how it feels
To be nailed to wood.
Must feel pretty nice.

I'm scared for Chiyo.
Darn it, how does she use her hair?
Does she fly like a bird
And replace them with new ones
When they don't work?
Goddammit, is she like some kinda alien
Who came from outer space
To raise hell on this school?
Like a…bodysnatcher?
Oh my heart!

You may say I'm weird when I say this.
But it's true. Sometimes,
I go a little bit too ahead of myself.
I can be an airhead. In fact, I am.
Well, kinda.

But when I think about it,
Meeting new friends isn't so bad.
Yomi, Tomo, Chiyo, Sakaki, Kagura, Kaorin,
And even Miss Yukari.
It's what they call "cumrahdry."

I do go ahead of myself.
I didn't know that panties and guns
Had an "adult" connection.
When I think about it,
It kinda makes me scared, y'know?
It's different.

Even Miss Yukari scares me.
She can't even drive well.
I could be gone. Osaka would be gone.
And I wouldn't be writing this poem.
I'm glad I'm still alive.

But the school, my friends, life
is so different. It's special.
It's beautiful. The world is beautiful.
The whole new, different, beautiful world's country.

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End Poem 3