Language I Knew in Another Life
Written & Narrated by Jennifer Lagier
California
Language I Knew in Another Life
from a quote by Diane Porter
I dream of long-dead aunts and uncles
seated at my great-grandmother’s Sunday table.
Their voices raise in musical celebration,
an animated soundtrack of Italian dialect
no longer part of my world.
In sleep, I mimic their rowdy chorus,
throat sore from strangled subtext,
unable to repeat words or recreate melodies,
soundlessly mouthing mother tongue songs.
Perhaps it’s cultural self-censorship,
a lifetime of stifled stories,
omerta demanded by family loyalty,
refusal to spill their secrets,
reveal ancient history that could bury us all.