Shopkeep

Always did he greet me.

He loved languages, speech.

Fascinated by the world,

Rural Ireland made him to dream,

He visited Asia, with glee.

Beyond Europe, he looked, with a strange, unyielding wonder.

And in Afrikaans he greeted me,

Proud of his mixed blend of outside sights.

Until my in-laws visited, and told him we don't really speak it.

They didn't, and I studied it in school,

And for work, I had used it.

And no more did he greet me,

Not with shining eyes and fascinated thoughts.

Still, for a while, on trips he went.

But it is years later now.

And he says hi in plain English, and passes product codes under lasers. 

And no longer do his eyes shine.

Into his life, he has settled.

And in a way, it saddens me.

There is no childlike wonder.

And I hope that never happens to me.

Ek hoop ek sal altyd wonder.

I hope I will always wonder.