New Tongue by Elizabeth Kamara (+Text and Summary)

See the full poem text and summary of New Tongue by Elizabeth Kamara (in stanzas and lines) and download the PDF with likely questions and answers.

Stanza 1

1. They speak in a new tongue
2. And dance new dances
3. Minds battered into new modes and shapes
4. Their eyes revel in the wonder of the new
5. Embraced and bound hearts with impregnable chains
6. The old songs as disregarded dreams
7. Remnants of a past.
8. Ties of family and friendship
9. Loosened, broken, burnt
10. The ashes strewn into the bottomless sea
11. As fishes swim by
12. Careless of the loss
13. Mindful of where they dare
14. A new generation
15. Careless of bonds
16. Of family
17. Of tradition
18. Of heritage
19. They care not
20. Nor revere the old
21. Their minds turn inwards
22. Only inwards
23. Like the insides of clothes
24. That marry the bodies of mankind

Stanza 2

25. No room for elders
26. No,
27. Not even on the edge of their minds
28. Their ears blocked to the old tongue
29. And ways of doing things

Stanza 3

30. Glorying in their newness of a borrowed tongue and culture
31. Every man
32. For himself
33. By himself
34. Of himself
35. A strange coldness descending like snow covered mountain
36. Or like bathing at the back of the house
37. On a rainy July day
38. The gusts of wind falling trees
39. Carting roofs away
40. Tugging skirts
41. And swirling debris in the air

Stanza 4

42. The borrowed shoes dance
43. Their borrowed minds parted the red sea long ago
44. They hang the last lock on their culture
45. And glide into the future
46. Without a backward glance.

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