Language Barrier – a poem

Swollen tongues and bite marks

Dented lips, chapped and flaking

Skin falling like snowflakes:

Confetti?

Whose mother tongue is the top

of this cluttered matriarchy?

Woven walls wicked barriers

Blocking words flung from mouths

That never close.

Breathe through your nose –

Inhale…Exhale…

Good. That’s better!

Walls tumble brick by broken brittle brick

When we breathe

Between sentences.

Full stop, Capital letter? No.

Ellipsis…pause –

Caesura, not enjambment

Creates a bridge –

Where walls once were.

And now words cross seas

Accents accepted

And placed in treasure chests

To be heard again later

“I love you”

“Te amo, mi amor”

“Aishiteru”

“Mon ami”