The Neighbour

Can liberal-multiculturalism contain the subtle paradoxes of cultural difference? "The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living." - Karl Marx

A clamour of other-tongues arose,
Absurd as an animal's cry;
What obscene worlds thy words impose?
And uncouth truths thy manners hide...

Midst my lonesome frame they invade,
As creatures from an infant's dream;
And in thus strangest space we wait,
In silence, save their smirks discreet...

Though what foul oddity must they deem?
My scattered self, my foreign gaze?
How dense must skins and layers seem?
Opaque the turns of nurtured ways...

Then we but chained to timeless snares,
Search our souls for a thought to spare,
Heavy while dead histories bear!
Upon unsettled minds.