as Maria cleans, she wipes the furniture in Spanish making
my cleaning rags bi-lingual; her eldest daughter, Elizabeth dusts
with the English side of the rag and her younger one, Jessica
trails after big sis wiping everything back down Spanish.

my home is transformed weekly into a classroom of energy;
vacuuming in Spanish, pulling all the tired dust
from carpets and tiles, teaching the mites that in the bag
are their cousins in either tongue.

by the day’s end my home smells of spent verbs and pronouns
in both languages, and worn to a frazzle are mother,
daughters, and the missed moments of language development;
both will later trek the alien world of generations.

10/02/2006