Tongue-Tied Poem by Prabhakar Subramaniam

He spoke in a tongue

That seemed familiar

Similar to my own

But so unintelligible

It could have been gibberish

He spoke in signs

Asking me to repeat

The words after him

He pointed to the sky often

As if to say

He learnt it from the gods

'Just listen to it'

He gesticulated

'That itself will benefit you! '

Soon I could not remember

My own language

Started speaking in signs

Could mouth only the words

Of the other

I wondered where mine had fled

Leaving me alone with this sorcerer

I frantically searched with my eyes for any sign of them

When he suddenly opened the bundle he had

And tossed them out like he would garbage

All had been hacked, dismembered,

Eyes, hands, torsos promiscuously mixed

You've nothing left, he said, and left.