Curious Eyes

A bridge of understanding

"Why do we study English, French, German,
and you do not study Arabic in your country?"
she says, while peering with curious
black oval eyes from behind a cloth
carefully concealing her.
"I want to learn. I want to know of your lands,
your ways, just as I yearn to know
of all the ways of people around the world."
"What do you want to know?"
Her eyes become thin and long.
"Tell me, what do you want to know?"
"Everything," I say.
"Everything."

A poem by Pemba Umoja