We speak a language called manglish
to us it is normal,
the queen’s grammar is so precise
we’ve made it informal.

‘Come’ is a commanding statement
to you and to me,
a twist of the tongue, a smooth ‘come-lah’
it becomes a plea.

For ‘lah’ is a phrase that is used with
a word to denote courtesy,
“Yes-lah, no-lah, sure-lah, okay-lah and
Lah- how can that be?”

Alamak! You know something unfortunate
has happened,
‘I didn’t take it, what’ is not a question but
a refutation.

‘Dropping his water-face’ means, him, you
are embarrassing.
‘Is that true, ah?’ you are undecided what he
says is convincing.

Don’t worry when you come over and hear us
talk like this.
It’s not that we don’t understand you,
we’re just mangling english.