The Native Tongue

By Jithin Kairamkonda

You are the language in which ‘love’ has a thousand synonyms.

You are the language where the words for ‘courage’ and ‘woman’ are anagrams.

You are the language in which ‘happiness’ rhymes with your name.

You are the language in which the words for ‘friendship’ and ‘magic’ are the same.

You are the language with no known usage of the words for ‘suffering’.

You are the language in which alphabetically ‘love’ precedes ‘apathy’ and ‘hate.’

You are the language where the word for ‘karma’ is a palindrome.

You are the language in which the lexicon begins with ‘mother’ and ends with ‘home’.

You are the language where the joke gets funnier with repetition.

You are the language where even the doctor’s prescription is calligraphy.

You are the language in which you will only always be at a profit of words.

You are the language in which any accent sounds like a rhythm by songbirds.

You are the language where alphabets return home after a long day at mathematics.

You are the language where the word for ‘kiss’ is pronounced like the sound it makes.

You are the language where what you speak is never misunderstood.

You are the language in which words start to lose their need when they should.

You are the language in which poetry is even possible for amateurs.

You are the language in which you can always find words for your emotions.

You are the language in which the word for ‘silence’ is implied, not spoken.

You are the language in which the barriers of semantics have been long broken.

By Jithin Kairamkonda