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ANOTHER LANGUAGE
It proved to be daunting for this volunteer
to make the English language clear
to a group of people from distant places
who absorbed new facts at different paces.
To reach them all, there was no panacea.
They hailed from Poland and South Korea,
from Chile and Russia and Viet Nam.
Facing this challenge required aplomb.
I sacrificed dignity, acting things out,
drawing pictures galore to help dispel doubt.
They struggled to learn, yet helped their peers
and, in the process, calmed their own fears.
We spoke of our lives to make conversation
and hearing these stories, found confirmation
that despite our diversity, easy to see,
on sorrow and joy, we all could agree.
At the start, I’d never have guessed what I’d gain,
what I and my students together attained–
an ease with a language I didn’t impart,
that parlance unique to the human heart.
Mary E. Moore
Published on The HyperTexts
