So You're Fluent

They ask me
They ask me to prove it
They ask me where I learned
They ask me but not at home

In this house here
Built by sea, hand, rope
I dreamed up myself in two languages
My house
Where there stops by no inspector
No money to be saved by hiring me
Where I decide
Which words and why
El mar, la mano, la cuerda
Qué rico, qué rica, qué rica

How rich
How rich I have become
How rich these words have made
My fluid house
At least twice as much
As I thought I could ever afford

Lauren Mallett’s poems appear in Poetry Northwest, Puerto del Sol, The Seventh Wave, The Night Heron Barks and other journals. She lives on Clatsop land of Oregon’s north coast. www.laurenmallett.com