Poetry

English as a Second Language

A coffee cart was travelling down the mountain, in the yellow shape of an ice-cream coupe it travelled, a cappuccino on wheels.                                          And we followed, speaking of this American teenager who was sent to remedial English, since he spoke more Tagalog. An American in remedial! His military parents had been deep in the Asian preoccupation. When he came back on a visit, it was in the splendid blues of their Marine Corps, wowing all the teachers. We recalled the Australian boy who comprehended nothing much, till his mother, called in to help, was heard talking fluently with him in…

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