My Tongue Poem by Warsame Dirie

You are a good writer

My lovable English teacher always praised,

I am good English writer.

My so enviable proud self always raised.

Then English Amplified path to success

Like old voyage I sailed with no transgress

In my world English personified intelligence

In English we debated, deliberated, delegated

Claimed custodian of culture & science

It had no other to be equated



Now I reflect, and it makes no sense

and neither do I feel sophisticated

Perhaps deceived with diligence

who to blame always be disputed

For my mother tongue, a thought in absence

My language, abated, castigated, relegated

By never ending ignorance, ever evolving violence

The beauty in ma language was never elevated

buried with rich history, a forgotten oral brilliance

Its demotion to coffee shop chatters understated



No time left for patience

For long English I propagated

honored it in its presence

While ma essence decimated

Not so long ago with arrogance

English said I was uncivilized and to be educated

Well, now I am educated, with confidence

Declare ma colonized mind, officially liberated