This Language Poem by Percy Dovetonsils

This language,
English,
will always be
alien

to me
because I was born
in Japan
and initially raised
by 2 Japanese house girls,
Shizeko and Marie,
while my mother
golfed.

That is why
English words
often feel like
gravel
in my mouth,
like Martian.

And yet
there is no
turning back.

I've forgotten
my mother tongue,
my Japanese,

and must always be
a stranger
in a strange
language
- -a strangluage.

And now
as my old brain
plaques up,
I'm losing
my English,
my Stranglish,
too.

I'm strangling
on my Stranglish,
stranded and starving
like the last polar bear
on his ever-shrinking
floe
of ice.

From two
mother tongues
I shrink
to none.