Blue-yellow-blue seats
on the platform in a row
the nasal-voiced conductor
people wandering to and fro

the chatter of the passengers
I understand but half
I can tell that its a joke but still
don't know just why they laugh

the brightly-coloured flyers
I can understand a third
the pictures entertain me
but I just don't get the words

the strange rules and the customs
I know but one in four
just when I think I've got one
I discover several more

As an alien I live here
and so far away I've roamed
my semi-normal life the envy
of my naive friends at home

Normality half-normal
all around me that I see
comprehending but a third
of all the things that surround me

the day by day chit-chatter
of things half understood
leaves me yearning for reality
like that of my childhood

where everything was normal
and everything was fine
and I didn't stick out like a monster
in a circus freak-show line

And yet when I return home
I find that something now has changed
there's a part somewhere in side me
from my own culture estranged

so here I am, half-normal
my reality half-real
knowing half of what's around me
with the other half surreal

and day by day passes by
in this life that's semi-charmed
and I wonder if I'll escape
with my mentality unharmed

One in two words spoken
One in three penned down
One in four strange customs
is all I know here in this town

To know two of two spoken words
To grasp three of three in pen
Four of four familiar customs
is what I yearn for now again

Restore my mother speech, now twisted
replaced with another tongue
Give me back my hometown customs
the ones I had when I was young

Return to me what is my normal
my reality itself
Give me truth and love to live for
shown to me inside myself.