Another Tongue

(100 words first)

English is my native language. In Madison,
those dirty looks, the sing-song comments,
sometimes it was as if I spoke another language,
foreign, another tongue unknown to anyone.

My Uber driver is from India, a UW student.
After 35 years, I’ve returned to Madison.
I recount my race-based interactions, and he says he believes
it’s worse now, how he can hardly wait to graduate, go home.

I love Madison, it’s a second home for me, I go back once a year now.
I’ll never forget the friendships I made there, the good times there,
and that I’m an Asian there.

 

(25 words second)

In Wisconsin I felt
I spoke a foreign tongue,
a language unknown to anyone.

I had good friends, good times,
but I was Asian there.