My mother tongue

Tongue of my mother
My mother tongue

What cooed at me
What sang to me
What comforted me
When I was young

The calming language
The familiar rhyme
The lilting cadence
That never became mine

Tongue of my mother
Became the Other

When my own tongue
Tried to curl around it
What was once familiar
Was mangled and estranged
Was then something unfamiliar
Something alien-strange

Tongue of my mother
My mother tongue
Now a queer vernacular
The Other has become