Bilingual I’m Not Poem by Stanley Cooper

Can’t express myself bilingually
In poetry or in speech
With my verbal singularity
Bilingual’s out of reach

In France for “yes” they say “oui oui”
I can barely manage that
In Spain for “yes” they say “si si”
That’s more than I can chat

“Sayonara” I can muster
That’s the Japanese “good-by”
“Nyet” is said with bluster
No Russian can “deny”

When The Brits refuse to recognize
And scoff at how I speak
They claim English I’ve Americanized
I just turn the other cheek

From California to New Yawk
It’s the language I converse in
The American way to talk
Is what I chat and verse in