Languages I utter

In a beautiful morning

I was in school

Under my little tree

Back home

In Riyadh

Where I was born

Came the words

" ya Aisha, ish lonissh, kayfal Xaal?"

" khayr, wa inti?" I'd reply

And then she starts

The difficult words

The tongue twisters

Challenging, she says

" Kheit hareer a'laa heet khalti imm khalil"

"shinnuuuuuuu!?"* I say

"Msh mushkeli" she says

Kicking the ground

And walking away, mumbling

Like a little school girl

She was hoping

Everyone to know

What she was uttering

But the truth was

The tongue twisters

Was hard to learn

Except by few

Under my tree

In my big house

Somalia was here

The place that I'd always hear

came my niece, running

eyes up, looking

“mafi antahay”? she asks

“haa” I reply

she, catches the accent

surprised, she says

“ dhaqan celis”

eyes rolling

far away, she walks

years pass, running

And darkness fade

then I came

to the place

Malaysia

Under my little tree

In my house

came the words

“ three makasih”*

“ Sama sama” *I reply

and they continue

but innocent silence

takes the place

covers, lasts

and then they frown

with their eyes, brown

seeing my clothes

they think

that I am the not the foreigner

And being here

I hear the words

running, dancing

rhyming between

the air, raining

“break” and “freak”

“horse” and “worse”

“choose” and “goose”

and then, there comes

the beautiful blonde

eyes big, blue

and the beautiful Africa

“Hi” she says

“Hello” I reply

sweating,

“ What’s up”?

“ The sky is up” I say

And then laughter

takes over

all of the place

walls, curtains, and chairs

Moments pass

like blinks

and I learn fast

but there is still

all words

In my head, remaining

somalia

Arabic

malay

English

“wow!!!!!!”, people think

but the truth

was clear

uttering one word

is better than many

that are shivering

differently

So I decided to take

one language

from all four

so as to repress

sad events