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Listen:
my father speaks Urdu,
language of dancing peacocks,
rosewater fountains-
even its curses are beautiful.
He speaks Hindi,
suave and melodic,
earthy Punjabi,
salty rich as saag paneer,
coastal Swahili laced with Arabic.
He speaks Gujurati,
solid ancestral pride.
Five languages,
five different worlds.
Yet English
shrinks
him
down
before white men.
-Shailja Patel from Migritude

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