Ποίηση

In the Language

I cannot talk about the place I came from 

I do not want it to exist 

The way I knew it 

In the language of my captor

The keeper asks me why I 

Refuse him this 

I think to anyone who came from / The place I came from 

It would be obvious

but     / / I did not think my people 

Superior to other people    before 

The keeper's language has infected me 

I knew of     / / Few people

Beyond the people / I knew 

before and when I met new people

The first thing I assumed was 

they were just like me

Perhaps even relatives 

Who had before my birth been lost 

In the jungle or on the plain 

Or on the other side of the mountain

And so at first I thought the white men    / Were ghosts 

one spoke my language 

And said that he had spoken to my father 

I did not fear them

I thought they had been 

whitened by the sun    / Like bones    wandering 

I thought I could / Help them 

I thought they didn't

Know they were dead

Shane Mccrae

Shane McCrae is the author of four previous books of poetry: The Animal Too Big to Kill, Mule, Forgiveness Forgiveness, and Blood. He lives in Oberlin, Ohio.