Today's poem is by Lupita Eyde-Tucker

Mis Gacelas
       

In New Jersey, Mamita watched All My Children. Stones
in her mouth, rolling her tongue against cold words in English.

Spanish is my mother. My father tongue is English.
My feet danced in Spanish, my chains broke in English.

I was twelve when we moved to Guayaquil. Immersed
in a mikvah of language, to break my yoke of English.

A key. A cipher. A tuning fork tongue. I become
a window in Spanish, a muscle in English.

Sometimes in Ecuador, I'd pretend to not understand.
Haciendome la gringa that only spoke in English.

I raise my hand in class, my biología teacher laughs.
Makes fun of my accent, but he chokes in English.

Mis gacelas are the unparsed dichos in Spanish
painting pictures there are no colors for in English.

Time couldn't erase my accent, the one that betrays me
that sounds like my father. I cry for the tongue cloaked in English.

Married at 27, at a Christmas party in the US, my new
in-laws complimented me on how well I spoke in English.

I've been practicing since birth, was my astonished reply.
But, Lupita isn't a word that can be translated in English.

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Copyright © 2024 Lupita Eyde-Tucker All rights reserved
from

Nũr Mélange: A Ghazal Anthology

Glass Lyre Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission