[Prestidigitweeze]

Thanks for the props, DT. My nick is Presti.

Given your point your native language is German, we should lay off you for using the word racist to mean prejudiced. Do take solace in the fact your English beats the genitalia off my German even though my brother, who's twenty years older than I, married a woman from Berlin and brought her to live with us when I was nine, permanently altering my sense of humor while leaving my polylinguistic potential untapped.

Somehow, you found yourself able to write coherently in my language while I, apparently impressed with my own cleverness, never came close to mastering yours despite the proximity of a native speaker.

This despite the language's precision, the surrealism of its built-in metaphors and -- heres what many friends often miss -- its propensity for expressing discorporate lyricism and delicate complexity.

Decades after my brother's example, I followed it by living with a Bavarian writer and German expatriate for years. Her seemingly insensate limbs graced the Edwardian-crime-scene cover of my first collection, now published years ago.

And now back to our regular feature.