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.
