Half abecedarian for an ESOL class

So what if I were to decide to speak with a cat in the throat?
-Caroline Bergvall

Afghani is a currency, and injera a type of bread
before you teach them, learn their words
curl them in your tongue to feel the
desperate tangle—only naked force will
expel the cat in the throat—a struggle as
futile as snow battling warm asphalt.
Gato makes his place in the sacred grotto—
hellion or a fierce protector, nursing
idioms you try to bury under stale
jargon & kitsch—wants to hide the last
mementos from the language of no return.