If I could but speak

If I could but speak a language.

Not English.

I was brought up speaking that.

But why just English?

Why not two or three to challenge me?

Why not learn them as a child?

They would be in me ever filed.

I would speak foreign language like my own

I would use my tongues to speak marathons

and not be just the outsider.

But I only speak the one sole lang

I can write it, shout it, sing.

I listen to the others speak

in tongues too far my depth.

I wonder what they talk about.

I wonder what the world be like

if every Gustav, Jean and Mike

could understand the same.

It takes years to learn and relearn words.

Not English.

I know that from word to word.

Hasta la vista. I know that phrase.

The other ones leave me in a maze

that jumble, tangle up my brain.

Just think about it.

I could go to countries, know their name

and speak the language with a snap.

But oh no, it's too late

and now it is my fate.

I wish I now had made attempt

to learn another as a child.

Oh well, at least I can speak English

than speak no words at all.