Cultural Appropriation
The Roman alphabet, both consonants
And vowels, was not a Roman innovation,
But was a thing they took from captive Greeks,
Who turned Phoenician consonants to vowels
And made a trader’s jargon into verse.
Our barbarous Germanic ancestors
Wrote Anglo-Saxon poetry in Latin
Letters without the benefit of classic
Meters or modern rhyme. Our Norman lords
Softened the native roughness of our tongue,
And changed harsh trochees into gentle iambs.
This battered language is the spoils of trade
And conquest, not our property unless
By cultural adoption. Origin
Is only prelude not the story’s end.
Give up appropriation if you will,
But hold your tongue and be forever dumb.
