The Colonizer's Tongue

Ngozichi, Izamal, Yucatan, Mexico 2022

I speak the colonizer's language just as good as my native tongue 

and have made a version of it for my own luxury

to use as I please and even confuse him.

I love the colonizer's language, every word spoken on a trip to foreign lands

 on my own terms 

I love the way it rolls off my tongue

its allure, a taste of the forbidden

I love the colonizer's language every word a piece of him

a piece he will never get back

a piece now mine, part of my journey and a reminder of his invasion of my land

I love the colonizer's language, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese

a taste of the forbidden that did not conquer my mind

I think in my native tongue, but straddle the colonizer's tongue