This poem was written as a reflection on the fact that as the most widely used human language, English has ‘invaded’ all kinds of major or minor languages with its vocabulary and even syntax and ‘occupied’ many linguistic territories in different parts of the world.
Is a British word meaning to modernize
To globalize, or to Americanize
All the colonies with an imperial syntax
Yes, it refers to the English Empire, where
The moon never sets, nor even the Babel Tower
Has a chance to rise, it was established to
Anglicize not only the local dialect
Spoken on each of those barren islands
But also the way all native minds
Living in the central parts of continents
Spell their own names, paint their road signs
In this wild world newly digitalized
You came, you see, you’re conquering
With a whole set of rules to grammaticize…
[previously published in in between hangovers]
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