A bus driver stops me
As I’m getting off and asks
“You’re Asian or something, right?”
I look at him
Looking like a white girl
Coming from a black high school
And say,
“Yeah, I’m Chinese.”
The driver nods his head and
Says a cheerful goodbye as I get off
The black woman behind who got off
Behind me
Arrogantly informs me
“You’re not Chinese,
You’re White.”
And stalks away
Disgusted with a white girl
Who thought she could pass for Chinese
I life on eyebrow
As I watch her leave
And think how often that happened
To me
A Chinese-Italian
Coming a black school
Looking like a white girl.


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