A Boyish Rogue [r] Poem by Margaret Alice Second

When switching from one language to another I
become a different person, in my mother tongue
a boyish rogue like my irrepressible dad - as for
English I'm restrained like my mama, in French
an ebullient, outgoing extrovert feeling helpful &
righteous, in German a boisterous, noisy singer of

Quatschlieder, while Latin hymns makes me into
a devout seeker of the symbolism of the Divine -
actually I'm multi-dimensional in Afrikaans since
the lullabies mama sang, the stories dad told and
my childhood dreams of becoming all-knowing &
wise, were formed in the tongue of my birth…