Speak My Language

A poetry prompt

As someone who lives and writes in a foreign language, I often think about how language shapes our mood and personality. Growing up on the Adriatic coast of the former Yugoslavia (now Croatia), I used to romanticize English. When I spoke it, I thought I sounded cool. I studied Latin for a few years. Latin made me feel smarter. I was a poor student of German. I skipped most German classes to smoke cigarettes in the school park. I loved listening to Czech; it sounded like a pair of delicate slippers running down a hallway. And Italian felt like home; the dialect of Croatian my family speaks draws heavily from it.

Later, as an immigrant, I had to reinvent myself in a place that bore no resemblance to my coastal home. I've spent most of my adult life learning and speaking English. Aside from my children, most people in my life can’t say more than a word or two of my language. Sometimes I wish I could express myself to the people I love here, in my “English life,” in my own language.

This prompt comes from this desire. It initially came to mind on one of my daily walks here in Atlanta while listening to Tricky’s song “Christiansands.”

Prompt

Imagine an intimate scene. You have woken up next to the person you spent an amazing night with. They don’t speak your language. You have a functional but limited command of theirs. Write a poem addressed to that person using your most intimate, personal language to describe a place, an event, or an important memory to you. How do you cross this bridge between the two of you?

Tricky:
You and me, what does that mean?
Always, what does that mean?
Forever, what does that mean?
It means we'll manage
I'll master your language
And in the meantime
I'll create my own
By my own