Ambiguous By Becca Khalil Poem by Amyrah Richard

Girl, you are so pretty. What are you?
The quintessential question for any tan skinned girl with soft kinky curls and a frizz that doesn't seem to quit
Because answering "human" simply isn't enough for them
People can't handle my racially ambiguous figure
They itch to know just what I am
It helps them sleep at night if they can just pin down the reason of my beige, gold, brown, baked potato bread skin
So I answer politely,
Hiding my annoyance under my Kind pink smile,
"black and white"
And then they look at me, studying my face, and say,
"That's it? "
"What do you mean, 'that's it'? "
"Oh I'm sorry, I just thought you were Chinese and Mexican or Egyptian."
Is that what you see when you look at me? A puzzle to be figure out?
So you connect the dots between the freckles I lack,
Subtract the possibility of an accent,
Calculate the sum of my eyes, nose, lips, and tongue
Multiply by every curl
And what do you get? Ambiguous
I apologize that my race is invisible to your eyes but last time I checked it's none of your damn business!
But then they still have the nerve to ask, "So what are you? "
I am a human being, you know
Two ears, two eyes, and a heart that beats in time,
not a show dog whose pedigree is to be determined before buying
You don't need to know my genes, I wear them just fine
I've got pockets full of culture that you'll never get to see
So do me a favor and stop assuming,
because I'm more than my race
I am more than my color
Or at least
Have the decency to not stare at me like some beast and ask,
"What are you? "