'A Question For Langston Hughes' Poem by Stanley Joseph Vinet Jr. Vinet

-reply after reading his 'Theme for English B'

What
Color-race-ethnicity-
Check only one that applies!
Did your page turn into?
What a painfully effortless answer
I see
For you
And them
In your simpler times
Of Black and White vision
You were Black as night
They a page white
But me? I'm-
Not sure. I can be-
Not me-
Fo' Sho' well what am I?
Supposed to be?
Too white to stop your
Fist and feet and friends and words-
And too damn poor to get away from them
I see that look in
blue-green-brown-grey eyes
Above-Even at 60 inches Tall Sergeant!
Always above
Me?
Down here?
Melting in this Texas heat
Like a box of crayons
You can't use again-can't distinguish a use for
A Crayola de' Mestizo
Especially as I fill out my
Scholarship papers
Check only one that applies!
Cause you sho' look white ta' me boy
Pinche' wetto