Lingua 

II say I’m not good at other languages

so, 

I feel less ashamed for not learning

my Dad’s Jamaican lingo.

 

Yet my stomach has a stoma of Greek origin –

the needle stabbed into my skin, the cannula, is Latin.

The catheters I use, Latin, too. 

I say I don’t know other languages. 

 

I forgot I knew the ancient ones; 

they have been with me since birth. 

I have been enriched in the culture 

from ward to ward, operation to operation, 

It is etched into scars around my belly button.

 

My second language is broken and not official, 

but I know Medical Terminology: the language, 

the feeding tubes better than anyone. 

I can speak another language –

just not the one you expect.