Use a new language like a spice.
migration for that exact job is
the spice trade
of today, and we
the merchants of this new coarse pepper
to flavor our dissatisfaction that we have simmered
slowly for years into a soup.
Wear a new language like a raincoat
only in its cover, keep a sense
of identity,
using it both
as a shield
as well as an excuse to mix with
the water.
Stain your lips with a new language
in the color of a local material
using beetles and red ochre
vermillion and lead
and pretend to carry shades of geography
and ecology.
Bear a new language like a corpse
of a loved one
taken to their grave.
Understood partially
claimed hesitantly,
appropriated unfairly,
on its grave its web of reference.
Tremble as you walk under this weight.
Wash a new language like dirt
from your hands.
You played in the soil all day making clay pots
and now you are ready to soak
another place in like
a shallow sponge
that crumbles away
as it ages.
migration for that exact job is
the spice trade
of today, and we
the merchants of this new coarse pepper
to flavor our dissatisfaction that we have simmered
slowly for years into a soup.
Wear a new language like a raincoat
only in its cover, keep a sense
of identity,
using it both
as a shield
as well as an excuse to mix with
the water.
Stain your lips with a new language
in the color of a local material
using beetles and red ochre
vermillion and lead
and pretend to carry shades of geography
and ecology.
Bear a new language like a corpse
of a loved one
taken to their grave.
Understood partially
claimed hesitantly,
appropriated unfairly,
on its grave its web of reference.
Tremble as you walk under this weight.
Wash a new language like dirt
from your hands.
You played in the soil all day making clay pots
and now you are ready to soak
another place in like
a shallow sponge
that crumbles away
as it ages.