What’s it like dating
White boy
As a girl
Coloured
Kaleidoscopic
Multidimensional
Layered
Exotic
As he picks me up
Puts me in front of
His
White
Pakeha
Gora
Friends
Light mixing with
The absence of itself
Hello, they say
Do you speak
The mother tongue
I speak in tongues
Many of them, I say
I’m as exotic as they come
Add me to you mantle
Pat me
Stroke me
Make me purrr
I like it
Take what I own
Put it on your face
It’s just fun
To look like this
The truth
It can’t be traced
Are you Latino?
Maybe Muslim
Because that’s a race
Perhaps you’re Spanish?
Oh yes, you have those looks
You know the ones
Different
Foreign
Flower
That I want to pluck
Throw away
Did you just arrive
On your boat
From several days at sea
I can tell you’ve had too much
Sunlight
Because all I can see is
Shadows