I dedicate this poem to those who without knowing a language have had to speak it...
“Don’t spic English, I”
Father told me, “Tell them…”
“I don’t speak English,”
because I understood the world in Spanish.
On a school day and acutely shy –ahem, ahem…
Reinventing grammar, I told them:
“Don’t speak English, I.”
The sentence was only close to right.
I could have died!
But like an outsider who would NOT be defeated,
my courageous little mouth and lips repeated:
“Jes! Don’t spic English, I.”
| “Don’t spic English, I” is featured in Réquiem, by Luis S. González-Acevedo The poem is also featured in Caribbean Poet, by Luis S. González-Acevedo |
