Poem: I Don’t Know English

I don’t know English.

I don’t know the English

that the English  call it as English.

 

I know only my English.

The English I speak is my English.

I am Sujmaki, so I speak Sujmaki English.

Americans call their English American English,

Britishers call their English British English,

Indians call their English Indian English.

Why not I call my English Sujmaki English?

 

I love you.

Let me give you a cup of coffee.

Because I love you.

Taste the coffee,

Don’t look at the cup,

Don’t talk about the cup,

Don’t find fault with the cup,

Don’t be lost in talking about the cup.

Taste the coffee that has my soul,

that has my love,

that has my feelings,

that has my experience of life,

that has my character, etc.

English is the cup.

The coffee is me.

Do you love cup?

Not the coffee?

Not ready to accept my love?

Don’t ask me to pronounce correctly.

I will kill you.

Sorry for killing you whom I love.

I am Sujmaki.

What I speak is Sujmaki English.

What I pronounce is Sujmaki pronunciation.

What I follow is Sujmaki grammar.

What I use is Sujmaki vocabulary.

The English I speak is mine.

That expresses only my soul.

Why should my soul wear your dress?

 

I am not a blunderer but a victim.

My parents were poor

financially, more importantly linguistically.

I picked up my English from my parents,

my brother, sister, relatives, neighbours and govt. school teachers

who didn’t know the English that the English spoke.

Sorry for repeating,

I am not a blunderer, but a victim.

I am not the mistaker, but the mistaken.

I am the accused to be excused.

 

The English I speak is the dress of my thought.

Why do you try to discipline me with dress code?

The English I speak is the vehicle of my feelings.

Why do you ask for license and R.C book?

The English I speak is the mirror of my soul.

Why do you try to see your image in my mirror?

My heart wants to speak to your heart.

I will kill your brain if it trespasses our private chamber.

 

There are millions of people, millions of feelings,

millions of experience, millions of characters,

So, let there be millions of English.

Let everybody have their own English.

Let everybody travel in their own vehicle.

Let everybody serve themselves in their own cups.

 

You know, English is Carbon dioxide.

That you don’t know that you know.

My science teacher told,

I breathe out carbon dioxide.

My English teacher told,

I  breathe out sounds to speak my  language.

They speak truth. I too.

English is Carbon dioxide.

And Carbon dioxide is English.

I wonder, why thousands of books

of grammar, phonetics and dictionaries

to regulate the release of Carbon di oxide properly?

You are a plant to me and vice versa.

The English I speak,

The feelings I share,

The love I serve,

is my carbon dioxide

but oxygen to you and vice versa.

 

We are Indians.

We like to dress our feelings with English

but never stress any words,

Not intentionally but innocently.

Don’t stress us to observe stress.

Kindly Observe, it adds stress to our soul.

Sujmaki is an Indian

who cannot speak like American

or a Britisher.

Sujmaki will speak like Sujmaki.

I don’t know the English

that the English know.

Sujmaki knows only Sujmaki English,

just as you know your English.