Korean and Basque are orphan languages
although linguists prefer the term
language isolates, which sounds
almost chemical, as though some
reaction resulted in a linguistic
sediment, or distillate perhaps.

If that is the proper term I
suppose I was a human isolate,
which actually makes some sense,
even after adoption, for I would
learn years later from my
step brother that I was
isolated from the family, “just
like a brother, just like
one of us,” just not one
of them ever, just an isolate
and I now comfortable with that.