Language Poem by Gert Strydom

Language is a brutal thing
when another tongue you do not really comprehend
and then all the time you have in it's learning spent
is simply insufficient
and your words do come out
in a different way than they should
and do draw laughter
from any person that do them hear
that makes it clear
that you have said something different
than what you did intent

but when you love someone
then in love
in the language of tongues meeting
love has its own language that does transcend
any earthly tongue
and do to the true meanings of things go
on its own accord
when hands do touch,
in the touching of tongues,
in each sweet kiss,
in the body's bliss
and I wish that everything
could be just as simple

but all separate from this
when anger comes to a situation
then I can speak and understand
dozens of languages
and not just the two that I do know best
being Afrikaans and English
or the two others that if spoken slowly
or written down I can understand
namely Flemish and Dutch
or the one that I can decipher the meanings of
when they are written down
being German

and of some languages
we do just have the outer shell
of the things out of what it does consist
and we do only know how to greet people,
to understand when they do greet us
and we can say some basic things
like hello and goodbye
or wishing people on their travels home well
or say that it is time to work
and this kind of things
I can do in Zulu, Xhosa and Sotho

but somehow and this is very bad,
curses and the meanings of them
in many different languages
do in angry situations
come alive in the mind
and on the tongue.

© Gert Strydom