Languages
The Standard, an English newspaper, is
delivered
To our doorstep every morning, and we let it
Stay until all other neighbours know
Our language abilities.
We dress well, even when taking out
The garbage or buying a San Miguel
From the store downstairs.
But let's not boast to our neighbours
How much more beautiful we are,
How much more intellectually-trained.
To our doorstep every morning, and we let it
Stay until all other neighbours know
Our language abilities.
We dress well, even when taking out
The garbage or buying a San Miguel
From the store downstairs.
But let's not boast to our neighbours
How much more beautiful we are,
How much more intellectually-trained.
They don't care.
One dialect only. Already they are free
From feeling embarrassed when pronouncing
/r/ as /l/, /n/ as /l/ or /z/ as /s/. They don’t feel
Excluded when two real English speakers
Are in the same room, commenting on
Memoirs of A Geisha or
Bill Ashcroft’s postcolonial theories.
We dare not open our mouths, lest our strongHK
Flatness of our tone, the inflexibility of our tongue.
One dialect only. Already they are free
From feeling embarrassed when pronouncing
/r/ as /l/, /n/ as /l/ or /z/ as /s/. They don’t feel
Excluded when two real English speakers
Are in the same room, commenting on
Memoirs of A Geisha or
Bill Ashcroft’s postcolonial theories.
We dare not open our mouths, lest our strong
Flatness of our tone, the inflexibility of our tongue.
~this poem appears in The Asia Literary
Review
Vol. 2 (Summer 2006, p. 158) and Taj Mahal Review
Vol. 5, No. 2 (December 2006, p. 433)
~Image courtesy of Jakub Pstrag.
~Image courtesy of Jakub Pstrag.
