language barriers

If I spoke Spanish I would drive to the border

To warn that this country is full of pinwheel people

Spinning upside-down faster than anything with blood should

Here might not put you back in working order

And if only I was fluent in French  

I could appreciate poems by the late Rimbaud 

But then if I mastered German instead

I could curse out the Nazis in their native tongue 

I wish I knew how to do Sign Language too

So no one would giggle when my voice cracks and squeals

But then they would mock my skin’s cracks and peels

Maybe I should stop trying so hard