nineteen ten

(a work in progress…)

we know only a little spanish

so we speak like little children

so we think like little children

this is good

this is not good

we speak of no shades of grey

having only black and white

and our minds relax completely

into vacation

as we graduate to

this is excellent

my name changes to  juan carlos

and melissa's e turns into a long a

we learn slang from a taxi driver

how to say

this is wicked

we learn the words for open

and for closed

from the l.e.d screen

on the safe in our room

by reading the yellow and black signs

we learn what is dangerous

new words enter us

and new words leave us

like the name of the not so ugly

fat-bottomed rats we saw

carrying bright chunks of papaya

back into the forest

we add an afternoon

between our good morning

and good night

we drink micheladas with the locals

and ask how do you say this

pointing at this

how do you say that

pointing at that

and we learn to drop our s’s

so our good nights

sound less like they are coming 

from the pages of a textbook

and at the end

we check out of our hotel room

returning to our infinite shades of grey

and both of us can  pronounce our room number

perfectly.