[Verse 1] Half a morning in the CHSLD, clipboard in my coat, Watching how the préposée adjusts her antidote, The way Monsieur Gagnon deflects with "ça va bien," But his hands betray the weight of ninety-one long ans, I'm scribbling down the idioms I couldn't catch in time, The regional inflections bending every paradigm, *Ce que j'ai pas compris* — I write it down in full, The gap between my textbook French and what the hallways pull [Chorus] Observation, réflexion, présentation, Three sessions supervised, then the integration, Journal in your hand, case fictif in your throat, Every stumble written down becomes a learned antidote, SAPA, CHSLD, CLSC terrain, French all the way through — *on recommence, on revient* [Verse 2] Three sessions, real or simulated, no switching lanes, The moment that I wanted English — *noter dans les pages*, *Ce que j'ai dit qui a mal passé* — the calque, the clumsy phrase, When I said "supporter" meaning "support" and got that puzzled gaze, My supervisor caught it gently, walked me back around, We unpacked how the false cognate had muddied up the ground, The journal isn't punishment, it's cartography, Mapping every canyon where my fluency runs free [Chorus] Observation, réflexion, présentation, Three sessions supervised, then the integration, Journal in your hand, case fictif in your throat, Every stumble written down becomes a learned antidote, SAPA, CHSLD, CLSC terrain, French all the way through — *on recommence, on revient* [Bridge] Now I'm building Madame Tremblay from scratch — Her réseau de soutien, her legal patch, Mandat d'inaptitude, her niece in Chicoutimi, Her history of grief before the loss of autonomy, I present it all in French, intervention and all, Language, history, cadre légal standing tall — Not borrowed from a textbook but assembled from the ward, Two mentors score the competencies I've worked toward [Verse 3] The review lands like a reckoning, a mirror and a map, We name the gaps out loud instead of papering the crack, Immersion hours committed — *trente par mois, au moins*, Francophone supervision booked, the OQLF is mine, Lexique de la gériatrie bookmarked on the shelf, The plan is written, signed, and dated — answered to myself, Not a graduation, more a threshold I step through, The French I practiced here will be the French that carries through [Chorus] Observation, réflexion, présentation, Three sessions supervised, then the integration, Journal in your hand, case fictif in your throat, Every stumble written down becomes a learned antidote, SAPA, CHSLD, CLSC terrain, French all the way through — *on recommence, on revient* [Outro] *Ce que j'ai entendu* — I hold it, write it down, *Ce que j'ai pas compris* — I'll stay until I've found, Module twelve complete but the practice never ends, *On continue en français* — that's where the real work bends
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