My Spanish Vocabulary

Hindi is my native language.

English is my main mode

of study and writing.

Latin, I have some command,

for I studied biology for decades.

Nobody advised me,

I didn’t listen to anyone,

but to conscience.

It told me:

You live in California,

once part of Mexico.

Your city and street names,

are all Spanish.

You are a PhD,

once a professor—

don’t you feel illiterate

when you don’t know

what suerte, bosque, arroyo mean?

So, I tried to grasp the words.

It was slow, and hard,

at times it felt hurtful,

I felt like a fool.

But I knew glory comes

when effort is consistent.

And now, years later,

I have several thousand words

in my growing vocabulary.

I have written and published

hundreds of bilingual articles

and several books.

My daughter says nieve, agua,

dulce, ojos, muñeca.

The son is even smaller,

and he says casa, amigo, leche.

Mommy’s lengua becomes

the kids’ lengua too.

My spouse is not into it.

but he is provider,

and he gifts us

Spanish card games and books.

Bored today,

I willed myself to write

Spanish words in 10 minutes.

Above is my output,

reward of effort.