My Life In Different Tongues
Ancestors had fore-planned
My whole being in Spanish
Yet, my concerned parents wrote
My rhesus A-plus blood in Tagalog
I was born, they said
To enjoy my own life, not theirs
That I took slowly my first steps in Ilocano
Only to be held captive by a beast, a stranger
My Dad, lover of math, thought I got his brain
So, he slaved himself working…and sent
Me to a Catholic private school, but
I found myself reading in Russian
‘Cos I was granted summers bathe in Dnepro
Where I spied the future in a Ukrainian accent
Thou, alone for years, I managed to earn happiness
As I learned friendship and peace in Arabic
But, I was best-loved in Chechen
And I’ve lived my dalliance in French, my lovers
For me, my inspirations; they half-influenced
Me, to become words whisperer in English
Oh yes, life is strange
And full of twists, yet, I saw the sliver
Of hope in Modern Greek, when
I met my other half. She spoke about….
Xristos, in whom I now dwell
For his language of love I learn to speak
And I try to live it in perfection
Till I breathe my last
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