Poetry by Juanita Rey
Don’t be put off
by brown eyes, brown face,
and the times my tongue stumbles,
flips an English phrase backward.
I am new here
and, though my colors won’t change,
words will one day come out of my mouth
without a detour via the islands.
I wish to buy this dress.
It matches my olive skin.
And I have a credit card in my purse,
ID to prove it belongs to me.
Yes, I expect assumptions, suspicions,
from those behind department store counters.
But I’m looking in a full-length mirror.
I have myself convinced.
Juanita Rey is a Dominican poet who has been in this country five years. Her work has been published in Pennsylvania English, Opiate Journal, Petrichor Machine and Porter Gulch Review.
