Imitated from the Taiwanese

Now all the years have gone,
astonishing the livid;
twenty-two years long lived
imitating the living.

Selling out my home language for slang,
still it makes me smile when you say,
”do you honey a lot”.
I never understood what you meant
till you explained English was
a second language.

What you truly meant to say
is do I been English
call people honey a lot,
I guess I prefer to call most ‘Love’.

Yet, now you have a pet name for me
Taiwanese for a playful saying of idiot--
just looks like a bunch of lines to me,
still you my Taiwanese friend
know what you mean.

And I’m still Imitating Taiwanese
whilst saying in small amounts
most words in Mandarin--
and all that comes to mind when your
gone is “Wo xiang ni”.

by RedStone
posted on 02/25/2008