DAY ONE OF LEARNING ITALIAN by Akhil Katyal

Before we learn the verbs for eating
or drinking, or the nouns for bread

and water, we are taught the words
for man and woman, girl and boy,

as if those are the survival skills
for the first day in a new country.

We step into a new language
through the Customs desk of

gender. I don’t yet know how
to ask a pretty stranger for an

address, or request bartenders
for a glass of water (or a beer!)

— all useful skills, mind you, as
first days go. All I know is to show

off my ragazza and ragazzo, la donna
and l’uomo. What is the need of

learning a new language if you
only confirm bits of plastic scenery

you thought you left behind. What
is the need to travel five and a half

seas to find new nouns for old things.
The teacher is impassive — “Why expect

a language to be kind on its first day?
Why make it into a djinn?” It doesn’t

live to answer some simple wish, it won’t
allow you to step out of every thing.

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