and it is not my fault
for in my mother tongue
one just adds to our v’s
to make it a w
and subtract from a w
to make it a v
vaak
means voice
i pronounce it woice
but in hindi
i can pronounce vaak
vithout any problem
you see
i learned to speak english
after the colonizers
forced it down
my lips
can’t you tell english
is a foreign occupation
on my native tongue
when you say
my english is really good
for an indian?
maybe one day
i vill be able to
distinguish between my v’s and w’s
just as vell as i can
in my
mother tongue
vithout any
problem
Divya Taneja is a current student at the University of Houston. She has been writing since 2011 and plans to continue doing so in the future. She also is a photographer and often incorporates her photographic work with her poetry. She aspires to publish her own book of poems and wants to be able to write screenplays in the near future.
