The Translator Poem by Raj Dronamraju

I couldn't read you
Couldn't pick up nary a clue from anything outside of speech - body language etc.
And the language you spoke to me in was foreign
I take a word and look up its meaning in the appropriate text
I still have no idea what you mean

The information I relayed to you in a language I thought you'd understand
From the source emotion
From someone alien yet grand
In transferral, this lost all its ability to change or move a mind
The meaning was wrung out like brown tepid dishwater from a rag

The door closed and they began shouting in words I couldn't make heads or tails of
I feared for my safety
In a foreign place, the thought was tentative but nothing else was

Lost in failed interpretation were scorching sunlight and angry evenings and moods that cannot be predicted
Making melted time from meeting to meeting
Disintegrating Into the next scene

Today's calm hides the unexpected poltergeist
I'll borrow terms from the original dialect
To fill in the gaps in fluency
Gaps that could have been filled with multilingual hues, patience as a universal communication device